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THE LIBRARY
UNIVERSITY Of GUELPH

HISTORICAL SKETCHES

PARISH OF CAMBUSNETHAN.

BY THE

REV. PETER BROWN,

S&fejfafo :
DAVID JOHNSTON, MAIN STREET.

EDINBURGH : W. OLIPHANT AND CO.
GLASGOW : D. ROBERTSON.

1859.

W5 3>

PRINTED BY

DAVID JOHNSTON,

W1SHAW.

THE EIGHT HONOURABLE

LORD BELHAVEN AND HAMILTON,
LADY SETON-STEUART,

OP ALLANTON AND TOUCH,

JAMES SINCLAIR-LOCKHART, ESQUIRE

OP CASTLEHILL,
AND

HENRY HOULDSWORTH, ESQUIRE

OF COLTNESS,

THE REPRESENTATIVES

OP

THE PRINCIPAL ESTATES

IN THE
PARISH OF CAMBUSNETHAN,

OP

"historical sketches"

IS,

WITH KIND PERMISSION, RESPECTFULLY INSCRIBED,

BY

THE AUTHOR.

PREFACE.

The u Wishaw Mechanics' Institute " was brought into
existence in the year 1852. The author of this volume
lent his aid to the "Institute" from the commencement ;
and has annually — except when the state of his health
forbade him — given one or more lectures on topics connected
with popular science, natural and national history, popular
superstitions, and antiquarian research. Several of the
Directors being aware that he had collected a considerable
amount of information in connexion with the Parish of Cam-
busnethan, embracing the period between the Restoration of
Charles II. and the Revolution, pressed him to throw this
information into regular shape, and embody it into a lecture,
to be given during the following session. After having
agreed to do this, he became convinced that, as the topic
was one of local interest, he might advantageously travel
beyond the limits of the twenty- eight years of Prelatic per-
secution, and especially backward over parochial incidents
of an older date. The filling up of this more enlarged sketch
occupied an occasional hour of literary recreation ; and

A

VI PREFACE.

when his researches into the matters which he had selected
had approached something like completeness, he found it
necessary to throw them into the form of two lectures — one
on the Antiquities of the Parish, the other on the Share
which the Parish had in the Sufferings of the Persecuting
Period.

Immediately on the delivery of these lectures, on the 4th
and 11th of February last, a very general desire for their
publication was expressed. "The pressure from without"
having been so urgent, the author assented to their being
sent to the press. In doing so, he saw it to be proper not
only to enlarge on some topics partially touched on in the
lectures when delivered, but to introduce a considerable
amount of information, on a variety of matters, which were
not so much as alluded to. He is persuaded that in having
done so, the volume has been rendered all the more accept-
able, to those who feel an interest in the topics discussed in
it. These prefatory statements will serve not only to
explain the occasion of publishing this volume, but account
for the style of the lecture room, which the author in several
passages has thought fit to retain.

It may be satisfactory to those who feel an interest in
the subject of this volume, to be able to form some idea of
the extent of the author's researches, the sources from which

PREFACE. Vll

his information has been derived, and the anxiety which he
had to combine fulness with variety of statement, within
the narrowest compass. He therefore subjoins the following
list of the authorities which he found it necessary carefully
to consult: —

Kegistrum Episcopatus Glasguensis.

The Cartularies of the Abbey of Aberbrothwick.

The Cartularies of the Abbey of Kelso.

Bede's Ecclesiastical History.

Usher's Antiquities of the British Churches.

D'Aubigne's History of the Reformation in England.

Burnet's History of his own Times.

Commissary Records of Glasgow.

Records of the Lords of the Privy Council.

Sommerville's " Memorie of the Sommervilles."

Hamilton's Description of the Sheriffdom of Lanarkshire.

Douglas' Peerage and Baronage of Scotland.

Burke's Peerage.

Nisbet's Heraldry.

Crawford's Peerage.

Crawford's Genealogical History of the Royal House of
Stewart.

Balfour's Annals of Scotland.

Buchanan's History of Scotland.

Tytler's History of Scotland.

Sinclair's Statistical Account of Scotland.

Vlll PREFACE.

Wodrow's Church History.

Cook's History of the Reformation in Scotland.

Carlyle's Cromwell.

Old Mortality.

Simpson's Traditions of the Covenanters.

Report of Commissioners on Religious Instruction.

Scott's Notices of the Associate Congregation of Cam-

busnethan.
Frazer's Life of Ralph Erskine.
M'Crie's Vindication of the Covenanters.
Lord Macaulay's History of England.
Butler's Lives of the Saints.
Stewart's Account of the Royal Stewarts.
The Haddington Collection of Royal Charters.
The Coltness Collection of Papers.

In the preparation of the lectures, and especially of this
volume, the author was laid under obligations to the Right
Honourable Lord Belhaven, Lady Seton-Steuart of Allanton
and Touch, Sir Henry Seton-Steuart, Baronet, of Allanton
and Touch, and Henry Houldsworth, Esquire of Coltness,
for the valuable information with which they have favoured
him, either bearing on their ancestry or their respective
estates. In availing himself of this opportunity of placing
on record an expression of his gratitude for the facilities
which they afforded him, he takes occasion also to express

PREFACE. IX

his gratitude for the kindness shewn him by the Rev. James
S. Johnson, of Cambuslang, Rev. Dr. Goold, of Edinburgh,
Rev. John Kay, Airdrie, Rev. J. W. M'Meekan, Lesma-
hagow, Rev. R. T. Martin, Wishaw, and a number of friends
in Wishaw and vicinity, who, in a variety of ways, lent
their aid in contributing facts and anecdotes, which have
been interwoven into the narrative.

After the first lecture had been delivered, a regret was
expressed, that it did not contain any allusion to the Origin
or Early History of the Town of Wishaw. The explanation
is a simple one : the Town of Wishaw, recently erected
into a Burgh, has nothing of Antiquarianism about it. It
has sprung up, almost as rapidly as one of the numerous
towns in the American and Australian continents. The
author has met with many persons who had a distinct
recollection when the oldest of the present houses were
erected. An old cottage in Main Street, marked No. 66,
situated between Wishaw Parish Church and the Royal
Hotel, and another cottage situated on the south side of the
same street, and marked No. 119, have, on the lintels of
their doors, the date 1777, and are considered as being the
oldest existing houses in the town. They will speedily
disappear before the spirit of re-building, which has recently
taken possession of proprietors, and which has been so
largely encouraged.

X PREFACE.

The north turnpike road from Glasgow to Lanark passes
through the centre of Wishaw, for about three-quarters of
a mile, and forms its principal street. From the middle of
last century till near the close of it, the cottages on this line
of road were very few, and were chiefly situated on that
part of the street now occupied by the houses marked No. 223
to No. 237. The principal group of houses was clustered
around the farm onstead of Fimmington. They have en-
tirely disappeared, and the site of this onstead — a few yards
below the lower of the two ponds which supply the distil-
lery — is marked by two very aged ash trees. " The lands
of Fimmington" are the feudal designation in the title-
deeds of houses erected on the portion of the Burgh which
belongs to the Wishaw estate. About the year 1790, the
prosperity of the cotton manufactures in the west of Scot-
land induced a number of persons to take off feus along the
line of the public road, which the superior encouraged by
granting them on favourable terms. The older feus are at
the rate of forty shillings sterling per acre. Those recently
granted in the Burgh are at the rate of £14. per acre.

The late Dr. Lockhart of Blackfriars Parish, Glasgow,
was minister of Cambusnethan in the year 1794, and drew
up the first Statistical Account, in the Collection published
by Sir John Sinclair. In that account he mentions, that
the line of a new village was then being marked out, with-

PREFACE. XI

out intimating that any name had been assigned to it. It
was originally called the New Town of Cambusnethan,
afterwards the New Town of Wishaw, then Wishawtown,
and now it is the Burgh of Wishaw, — having been so
constituted by the provisions of the Act of Parliament, on
the 4th September, 1855.

The following Statistics may be deemed interesting : — In
the year 1755, the population of Cambusnethan was 1,419.
In 1781, the population was 1,562. In 1791, it was 1,684.
In the year 1794, the whole population in all the villages in
the Parish only amounted to 409. In the year 1801, the
population was 1,972. In the year 1831, it was 3,824. In
the year 1841, it was 5,796. In the year 1851, it was
8,621. In that year the population of Wishaw was 3,271.
Since that date, the population of Cambusnethan Parish,
and of Wishaw, has advanced at a more rapid rate than
during the same number of years at any former period. The
population at the present date cannot be much under 17,000.

The number of deaths in the Parish of Cambusnethan in
the year 1781, was only 12. In the year 1791, it was 30.
The number of births registered in the year 1858 was 671,
and of deaths, 231.

In the year 1781, the sum of £66. sterling was deemed

Xll PREFACE.

adequate to the maintenance of the poor. In that year the
Associate Congregation of Daviesdykes contributed to this
sum to the amount of £25. 5. 0. ; and it does not appear
the poor made any complaint. In the year 1817, the sum
raised for the maintenance of the poor, from assessment on
lands and heritages, mortcloth fees, and church-door collec-
tions, was £85. 2. 0^., and the expenditure was £88. 19. 6.
In the year 1844, the income, from assessments, voluntary
subscriptions, mortcloth and proclamation fees, was £245.
14. 1J., and the expenditure was £264. 11. 0. In the year
1858, the assessment amounted to £1,935. 15. 0., and the
expenditure to £1,835. 17. 0. In this year, the number of
individuals receiving regular parochial relief was 347, and
those obtaining occasional relief, 152, — in all, 499.

In the year 1824, there was no public conveyance from
Wishaw, nor could one be obtained on hire nearer than
Hamilton. So late as the year 1840, a one-horse coach,
which, from the name of the proprietor, was called " Watt's
noddy," was run three times a week to Glasgow, and occu-
pying three and a half hours on a journey of fourteen miles.
The Caledonian railway has a station at Wishaw, from
which, at present, any person may travel north or south
eight times a day ; and stylish vehicles can be had on hire,
at five of the principal hotels. Twenty-five years ago, it
was difficult to obtain a little writing paper, of a common

PREFACE. Xlll

description, at a few of the grocers' shops. Now, there are
several booksellers' shops in the Burgh ; and, perhaps, one
of the most striking indications of modern progress is, that
this volume has been brought out at the local press. Pre-
vious to the year 1836, an old man, engaged by the inhabi-
tants, carried their letters to and from Hamilton, allowing
him one penny for each letter or newspaper. Frequently
he had not more than half-a-dozen daily. In the above-
mentioned year, when a post-office was established in
Wishaw, the letters seldom exceeded a dozen, or a score,
daily. At the present date, the letters and papers which
pass through the post-office, average seven thousand weekly,
and there are three deliveries daily. There are three banks ;
and the shops are fitted, and furnished, in a style which
rival, for taste and supplies, anything to be met with in
much larger towns.

It has been mentioned that Wishaw was constituted a
Burgh in the year 1855. The rental of the Burgh

In 1855, was £5,000 ;

11 1856, " 5,804 11 6 ;

" 1857, " 6,634 12 0;

" 1858, " 8,740 0:
at which rate of progression, the rental is likely to double
itself in the short period of five years.

XIV PREFACE.

The author, having restricted himself, has left many
topics of local interest untouched. There are ample mate-
rials to employ other pens, in the geology of Cambusnethan
— its agricultural and mineral resources — its literary, educa-
tional, and benevolent institutions — and in the social and
moral condition of the miners, and labourers at its public
works, who have, of late years, so rapidly increased the
population. He commits the volume to the intelligence and
candour of the inhabitants of the Parish, in the confidence
that his efforts to arrange, and place on record, so many
historical facts of local interest, will by them be duly ap-
preciated.

P. B.

United Presbyterian Manse,
Wishaw, June, 1859.

CONTENTS.

Antiquities of the Parish op Cambusnethan,
Introductory Remarks ,

Earliest Historical Reference to the Parish .
Inquest by Prince David in the Twelfth Century
Connexion with the Abbey of Kelso
William Finnemund, and Rudolph de Cler .
Cambusnethan connected with Glasgow Cathedral
The Titulars and Teinds of the Parish .
Lands belonging to the Abbey of Aberbrothwick
Etymology of " Cambusnethan " . .

Nethan, a Pictish King

Line of the Roman Road in the Parish .

The Tumulus at Garrion

Garrion Tower and its Episcopal Occupants .
Bishops Fairfowl, Paterson, and Leighton
•« The Auld Toun o' Col Ness "
Wincie Well ......

The First Church at Cambusnethan
Disputes about the Church Lands .
Ruins and Remains of the Original Church
The Curates previous to the Reformation
Abolition of Popery
The first "Readers " in Cambusnethan
The Ministers after the Reformation

The Old Bell

The Choir of the Old Church .

Disputes between Sommerville and Steuart of Allanton

Removal of the Church to Greenhead

PAGE.

1

2

3

5

ib.

6

ib.

7

8

9

11

12

13

15

18

19

ib.

20

21

ib.

22

24

ib.

25

26

28

30

XVI

CONTENTS.

Dilapidation of the Old Church ....
Disputes about Seats in the New Church
Notices of the Ministers in Greenhead Church
Origin of the Associate Congregation of Cambusnethan
Ralph and Ebenezer Erskine at Daviesdykes

Notices of the first Elders

Notices of the Ministers at Daviesdykes

The Revolution settlement unsatisfactory

Notices of Mr M'Millan and ' The Reformed Presbytery

The Reformed Presbyterian Congregation in Wishaw

Mr. Mason and his Writings .

Mr. Mason's Successors ....

Origin of the Relief Congregation in Wishaw

The first Managers

The Building of the Church

Steps towards having an Ordained Minister

Mr. M'Intyre's Ministry ....

The first Session

Mr. Brown's Ministry ....
Other Congregations recently formed
Oldest Houses in the Parish

The Steuarts op Allanton.
Origin of the name " Steward "
The Grand Stewards of Scotland
Sir John Steuart of Bonkyll
Ancestry of the Allanton Family
Allan Steuart, and his Descendants
Notices of the Ancestry of Lady Seton-Steuart

The Steuarts of Coltness.
A Branch of the Allanton Family .
The Founder of the Coltness Family :
Anecdotes of his Descendants
The Arbour at Coltness House

History op the Cam'nethan Estate.
Owners of the Estate in the Twelfth Century
Sir Robert Baird found guilty of Treason

Sir John Edmonston

The first Baron Sommerville of Cam'nethan .
The Extent of the Estate

CONTENTS.

XV11

The Estate Forfeited, and afterwards Restored

The gradual Disponing of portions of it .

Sommerville of Drum becomes Proprietor

Sold to Sir John Harper, Sheriff-Depute

Sold to Lockhart of Castlehill .

Ancestry of Lockhart of Castlehill .

Sir James Douglas and the Heart of Bruce

Sir Simon Locard of Lee

Origin of the name "Lockhart"
Memoir of the Belhaven Peerage.

Viscount Belhaven

Ancestry of the first Lord Belhaven

Origin of the Armorial bearings

Notices of the first Lord Belhaven .

Notices of the second Lord Belhaven

Notices of his Successors in the Peerage .

The Barncleuth Branch failed .

The Claim to the Peerage disputed

The Claim decided in favour of the Wishaw Family
The Share which the Parish op Cambusnethan had
in the Troubles and Sufferings of the Perse-
cuting Period.

Introductory Remarks

Abolition of Popery

Faithlessness of James VI. to his pledges

Charles I . resolved on introducing Prelacy into Scotland

Awakening at the Kirk of Shotts

Cambusnethan a Sharer in this Revival ....

Mr. Livingstone and Charles II.

The Earlier Martyrs after the Restoration

Mr. James Sharp betrays the Church of Scotland .

The Minister of Cambusnethan made a Bishop

Archbishop Leighton and Sir John Harper .

The Act of Indulgence

The Indulged Minister at Cambusnethan

Steuart of Allanton and others Fined ....

Mr. Vilant Banished

Mr. Hugh M'Kail's Sermon

His Torture and Martyrdom

PAGE.

82
ib.
83
84
ib.
ib.
ib.
85
ib.

87

ib.

92
95
96
ib.

97

101
102
103
104
ib.
106
107
108
109
110
111
112
114
115
116
117
118

XV111

CONTENTS.

PAGE.

"Ephraim M 'Briar" of Old Mortality .... 119

Battle of Drumclog 121

Paterson of Carbarns shot in Glasgow . . . .122
Sufferings of James Gourlay of Overtown . . .123
Sufferings of Alexander and James Gray of Cam'nethan

Mains. , 125

Robert and William Paterson of Kirkhill shot . . 127

Barbarities at Kirkhill 129

Cases of James Bryce, Alexander Smith, James Petti-
grew, Robert Russel, James Forrest, Robert Gourlay,
Margaret Forrest, Gavin Muirhead, Gavin Laurie,
John Miller, David Russel, Archibald Prentice, John
Cleland, John Smith, Robert Steel, William Dalziel,
George Russel, John Marshall, John Torrance, sever-
al persons in Overtown, and Thomas Paton . 130-133
Sufferings and Losses endured by Sir James Steuart of

Coltness . 134=

The Case of Walter Steuart of Coltness .... 136

James Steuart and his Writings ..... ib.

Thomas Steuart obliged to fly to Holland . . . 137

David Steuart of Coltness sentenced to be executed . 140

Arthur Inglis of Netherton ; 141

Inscription on his Tomb-stone 142

The Trees at Stockelton-dyke 143

Our Old Church-yard 144

Notices of Mr. Donald Cargill 143

Mr. Cargill, at Darngavel and Darmeid , 146

His escape from Watersaugh 147

Darmeid and the " Sanquhar Declaration . . ib.

Mr. Renwick's First Sermon at Darmeid . . . 149

Concluding Reflections 151

M'Crie's Vindication of the Covenanters . . . 154

Eulogy by Lord Macaulay 156

ANTIQUITIES

PAEISH OF CAMBUSNETHAN.

HISTORICAL SKETCHES

PARISH OF CAMBUSNETHAN.

^ntirjui&g of % Iparisfj.

The question has been often put — and certainly with great
propriety — "who would remain unacquainted with the his-
tory of his own country ?" Take Scotland as an illustration
— a country which has produced so many heroic, talented,
and worthy men — a country, whose annals are crowded
with the record of incidents, the bare recital of which
continues to touch, and awakeu, the finer sympathies of out-
nature — a country, whose long and arduous struggle for
independence was crowned with victory. The Scotchman,
then, who had within his reach the documents in which
these incidents are recorded, and yet did not possess them,
or remained ignorant of them, would betray not merely the
low state of his literature, but the low state of his patriot-
ism. The question with which I set out this evening is,
" who would remain unacquainted with the history of his own
Parish f n The parishioners of Cambusnethan who are still

B

2 HISTORICAL SKETCHES OF THE

11 a acquainted with parochial incidents, historically considered,
have their apology. The materials, which are requisite to
the construction of anything like historical detail, are not
generally accessible — they have hitherto existed in a very
scattered condition — they require a considerable amount of
patient research, and no small amount of time to arrange
them, and bring them into anything like shape. If, then, I
have had the ambition to attempt the task, I trust it will
be deemed allowable, when it is balanced against the desire
which I have all along felt, and the humble efforts which I
have all along made, to maintain the " Wishaw Mechanics'
Institute" in a tone of healthfulness, by having, latterly,
selected a subject, which, whatever it may be worth, has at
least a local interest to recommend it.

This lecture is to be occupied with details, which properly
belong to the Antiquities of the parish of Cambusnethan.

My researches in this direction, so far as they have as yet
gone, have been interesting, and satisfactory. I cannot, as
yet, go farther back than the commencement of the eighth
century ; my earliest fact being derived from the Ecclesias-
tical Annals of " the Venerable Bede." Subsequent to this
date, and during what are called " the Middle Ages," there
is occasionally much obscurity in our national records. In
consequence of frequent feuds among the nobles, large dis-
tricts of the country passed from hand to hand, so as,
ultimately, to render it no easy matter to say to what
division of the country it belonged, or who was the rightful
claimant. Even the great boundary line, between England
and Scotland, was not accurately defined. Northumberland

PARISH OP CAMBUSNETHAN. 6

was then a distinct kingdom, extending so far north as the
Frith of Forth. It is generally understood that Edinburgh
had its name from Edwin, a Northumbrian Prince. About
the middle of the tenth century, Cumberland and West-
moreland were made over to the Scottish monarchy, and
were, during several reigns, regarded as part of the Scottish
realm. It is worth mentioning, as an illustration of the
divided state of the country, that, at the period referred to,
Clydesdale could scarcely be said to belong to either of the
contending parties. It was not till the reign of Kenneth III.
that Clydesdale was incorporated with the then Scottish
kingdom ; and, not till the reign of Malcolm II. that the
Lothians and the Southern counties, were identified with
the Scottish crown. These brief notices will sufficiently
indicate, how very difficult it must at one time have been,
to define what properly belonged to the crown, or to the
barons, or to the church.

These preliminary observations bring me to a definite
period. At the commencement of the twelfth century, or
about the year 1116, David, Prince of Cumbria, instituted
an Inquest, having for its primary object to ascertain from
the testimony of the oldest and wisest persons in Cumbria,
what lands, and churches, belonged to the Diocese of Glas-
gow. Clydesdale was then a portion of Cumbria. There
is afac simile of the document embodying the result of this
Inquest, in the " Registrum Episcopatus Glasguensis," re-
cently published by the Maitland Club. It contains a
minute list of the lands and churches which were understood
to belong to the bishopric. Several names in this list have
puzzled Antiquarians, as they have had to contend with

4 HISTORICAL SKETCHES OF THE

mistaken readings, in twice -copied transcripts. A name,
almost at the top of the list, has particularly engaged my
attention. Owing to the minuteness of the character of
the penmanship, I felt a difficulty at first, whether to read
it u Camcachethyn," or " Camnachethyn ;" but, on compar-
ing the style of the characters in other parts of the document,
have been led to prefer the former of these readings. If
this, in the twelfth century, wa3 intended to represent the
district in Clydesdale which has long borne the name of
" Cambusnethan" the discrepancy in the orthography is not
greater than in other cases, about which no dispute now
exists. If a person, unacquainted with the sources of our
national monastic literature, were asked to point out the
locality of the Abbey of " Passeleth" he might be some
time in guessing whether this was the original name for
Paisley. If a person residing in Cambusnethan were told
that, in the Cartularies of the Abbey of Aberbrothic, a large
central district in the parish is written u Allcathmor," he
might be at some loss to explain how this designation came
to be corrupted into the modern, but less euphonious word,
" Aughtermuir." Taking the circumstances, above narrated,
into consideration, there are reasons for concluding that we
must identify the place mentioned in the " Inquest" of Prince
David with the lands of Cambusnethan parish. The proof
may be considered as nearly complete, when we take into
account that, in a charter granted by the Abbot of Kelso,
to Walter, Bishop of Glasgow, in the year 1232, Cambus-
nethan is mentioned as being within the limits of the Glasgow
diocese.

The Abbey of Kelso, one of the most magnificent of our

PARISH OF CAMBUSNBTHAN. O

monastic structures, was reared and endowed by the taste
and piety of David I. The Abbey was very wealthy ;
deriving its revenues from lands in thirty-four parishes.
As an acknowledgement of royal liberality, David was
canonized, and is still venerated as a saint, at the expense
of a joke, which is understood to have originated with
James VI., that David had been "a sair saunt to the croun."
During the twelfth century, William Finnemund, a Norman
Baron, was lord of the manor of Cambasnethan, and being
a devoted son of the church, he bequeathed to the Abbey
the titles, and other rights over the soil, pertaining to him.
These grants appear to have been subsequently confirmed
by Malcolm IV. and William the Lion. Finnemund was
succeeded in the manor by Rudolph de Cler, who confirmed
the titular at Kelso in the privileges which his predecessor
had bestowed upon him, and even added to them. On
condition of being allowed to have a private chapel in the
manor-house, dedicated to Saint Michael, he gave the monks
a right to grind their corn at Garrion mill, and to the tithe
of the multure of said mill. The last notice of Cambus-
nethan in the Kelso Cartulary is met with in a list of
churches over which the Abbot had control, and to each of
which certain privileges were granted by Pope Innocent IT.
In the thirteenth century, the church of Cambusnethan, with
its tithes and other ecclesiastical revenues, were transferred
from the Abbey of Kelso to the Bishop of Glasgow. It was
then constituted one of his mensal kirks, and continued to re-
tain this character till the Reformation. The revenues from
particular churches and church lands were appropriated to
purely ecclesiastical purposes, but, in every diocese the
revenues of a few were expressly granted for the Bishop's,

G HISTORICAL SKETCHES OF THE

personal expenses, and especially the maintenance of his
table. They were, on this latter account, called " mensal
kirks." Cambusnethan was of this class. At the Reforma-
tion, Sir James Hamilton had a lease of the parsonage tithes
of this parish from the Archbishop of Glasgow, for a small
rent. After the Reformation, when the temporalities of
the church came to be distributed among laymen, the Duke
of Lennox appears to have obtained a large share of the
revenues from church lands in Cambusnethan. In the year
1696, there was a special grant of these revenues, by an
Act of Parliament, to Anne, Duchess of Hamilton, on con-
dition of her paying the yearly stipend of the minister, as
then modified, and one penny Scots to the crown. The
patronage, however, was some time after this bestowed on
the proprietor of the manor of Cambusuethan. At the
Revolution, the Duke of Hamilton became titular of the
teinds of this parish ; the " titular" having a title merely to
the teinds of a parish, without possession, or enjoyment of
them. The teinds are in this parish distributed among the
heritors, according to the valued rent of their respective
heritages, to be by them appropriated to the payment of
stipend, and maintenance of the ecclesiastical buildings.
According to the Report of the Commissioners of Religious
Instruction in Scotland, published in 1838, the teinds of
Cambusnethan are set down annually at £490. 19, 3., and
the amount of unexhausted teind at £212. 4. 2.

While on the subject of church lands and revenues in
this parish, it is proper to notice that, between four and
five hundred years ago, the central portion of it belonged to
the rich lordship and Abbacy of Aberbrothic. The district

PARISH OF CAMBQSNETHAN. i

seem3 to have been originally called MacMorrens Muir> but
in the fourteenth century it was called Allcathmuir, for a
reason which will be fully explained in the notices of the
Steuarts of Allanton. In the year 1432, when an Inquest
had been made into the lands of Allcathmuir, Thomas Hay,
Baron of Yester, was taken bound to pay to the Abbey
forty merks annually, and half a stone of wax on the eve
of the feast of John the Baptist. This half-stone of wax
must doubtless have been to aid in keeping up a sufficient
supply of candles for the religious services of the Abbey,
and serves to shew, that, at the period referred to, the
district must have been as famous for the rearing of bees as
it has latterly been, when wax was fixed on as the com-
modity which could be most easily furnished. In the clause
of the title-deeds of the United Presbyterian Church at
Bonkle, in which the situation and boundaries of their pro-
perty are specified, it is described as being u at the bottom of
North Brownhill park, within the Barony of Allcathmuir,"
thus evincing, that upwards of four hundred years ago their
property was church lands, paying its quota annually of the
half-stone of wax to the Abbey of Aberbrothic. In the
year 1476, letters were issued by the 'Abbot, appointing
John Hamilton, of Braidhirst, his justiciary bailie over the
lands of Allcathmuir ; and on the 10th February, 1528, a
precept of sasine was granted in favour of John, Lord Hay,
of Yester, over the lands of Allcathmuir. The Lords of
Yester were the ancestors of the Marquis of Tweeddale, and
by the Tweeddale family Allcathmuir was feued out among
sundry heritors, the principal among whom was Steuart of
Allanton. The Abbey of Aberbrothic was probably as rich
as that of Kelso, as it derived revenues from lands in thirty-

8 HISTORICAL SKETCHES OF THE

rive parishes. Wherever they had lands they had chapels.
In Allcathmuir, there was the " chapel of Beuskiag," and
although the ruins of it have some time ago disappeared,
yet the district continues to be distinguished by the appella-
tion of "the Chapel."

An inquiry into the etymology of Cambusnetkan is rather
interesting. The original names of all places in Scotland
are Celtic, and are almost invariably descriptive of peculiar-
ities in the external character, or appearance of the locality.
The parish derives its name from the manor of Cambus-
nethan, which, at an early period, included the whole district
which now parochially passes under this name; and the
manor being at the western extremity, where the Clyde
curves round the fertile valley land, this circumstance must
have given the name to the locality which it has so long
borne. The Celtic word u cam " expresses whatever has
a bend or twist in it. The names of two of our Highland
clans — Cameron and Campbell — are significant. Cameron
signifies "the bent, or hooked nose," and Campbell, " the
crooked, or wry mouth ;" and there can be no doubt that
the founder of the Cameron family must have been remark-
able for the shape of his nose, and the founder of the
Campbell family must have been recognised by nothing so
much as a peculiarity in the figure of his mouth. The Celtic
word "cainbus" — so common a prefix to the names of
places in Scotland — describes an extent of level or valley
ground, around which a river, or stream, sweeps in its
course. Cambusmore, signifies "the large bend," and is
the name of an estate around which the Teith makes one of
its largest curves. Cambuskenneth, gives a name to a

PARISH OF CAMBUSNETHAN. 9

ruined Abbey, on a neck of land around which the Forth
has placed one of her picturesque links. Cambuslang, is
u the long bend," and is the name of a parish in the lower-
ward of Lanarkshire, around which the Clyde takes one of
her long and graceful sweeps. Cambusnethan signifies
" Nethan's curve," or bend. Usher, Archbishop of Armagh,
who wrote on the Antiquities of the British Churches, up-
wards of two centuries ago, makes reference to Nethan, as
a saint, eminent alike for learning and piety. He refers to
the Venerable Bede as his authority. From the testimony
of Bede it would appear that Nethan, like David I., was a
royal saint, being the Pictish Monarch towards the com-
mencement of the eighth century, having his royal residence
at Abernethy, the ancient form of which name was 4t Aber-
nethyn." The compiler of the first Statistical Account of
the parish of Abernethy, mentions, that the name which the
Highlanders were accustomed to give to the locality was
14 Obair^ or " Abair Nadchtain* which signifies " the work
of Neathan" or "Nectam, ,> and this Celtic mode of pro-
nouncing the name, may serve to account for the remarkable
circular tower, the most striking memorial of the olden time,
in the district around Abernethy. Nectanus, or Nethanus,
the Pictish King, contributed in no small degree to counten-
ance the intrigues of Popery in Scotland, at the commence-
ment of the eighth century. Previous to that period, the
emissaries of Rome had failed in bringing the church in
Scotland under the Papal yoke, but, by flattering the vanity
of Nethan that the Roman ceremonials accorded with the
pomp of royalty, they prevailed. As yet, in Scotland, the
sanctuaries were rude and simple in the materials of which
they were constructed. Nethan was induced to send to

10 HISTORICAL SKETCHES OF THE

Ceolfrid, Abbot of Jarrow, on the Tyne, to favour him with
a few architects to build a church after the Roman pattern.
The request was granted. Nethan felt that he now had
influence in the church, and resolved to use it. He was the
first to introduce into Scotland the observance of Easter, and
the circular tonsure on the heads of the clergy. D'Aubigne
refers to this enslavement of the Scottish church in the
following terms of pointed irony — " A royal proclamation,
and a few clips of the scissors, placed the Scotch, like a flock
of sheep, beneath the crook of the shepherd of the Tiber/'

At the commencement of the eight century, Clydesdale,
at least the northern portion of it, belonged to the monarch
of Abernethyn. The Clyde was probably the southern
boundary of his kingdom. Without waiting to question
either the learning or piety of the Pictish Nethan, we may,
I think, safely compliment his good taste, when, in his
peregrinations through his dominions, he selected for his
occasional residence so warm and cozy a spot as the western
extremity of our parish, and, having done so, perpetuated
his name in this locality. The silvery Clyde — the theme of
song and story — has many a lovely spot upon her banks,
and, on the western banks of this parish, long, long ago,
when few sounds were heard except the music of Nature —
the song of the woods, the bleating of the lamb, and the
murmur of the passing river— the royal Nethan occasionally
sojourned ; little dreaming of the changes which agriculture,
and engineering, and the enterprize of the human mind,
freed from the fetters of Papal superstition, would one day
accomplish in this lovely valley.

PARISH OF CAMBUSNETHAN. 11

The external remains of anything in the parish, laying
claim to high antiquity, are not numerous, yet are worth
noticing. A branch of the Roman road passed through the
parish. This great highway issued from the forum at Rome,
traversed Italy, pervaded all the Roman provinces, and was
terminated only by the frontiers of the empire. When the
Romans had possession of the southern portion of Scotland,
they thought proper to arrest the incursions of the Caledon-
ians by a wall, running from Borrowstounness — almost in
the present line of the Forth and Clyde canal — to a point
on the Clyde, a short w r ay above Dumbarton castle, at
Dunglass, where the remains of a Roman fort are still vis-
ible, crowned with an obelisk to the memory of the late
Henry Bell, who constructed and sailed the first steamboat
on the Clyde. A branch of the Roman road started at
Dunglass, came upwards towards Glasgow, and entered this
parish at a point between Shieldmuir and Meadowhead,
passed Wishaw nearly mid-way between the town and the
line of the Caledonian railway, and crossing Garrion-gill,
passed through Carluke, onwards towards Carlisle. Those
who constructed this road seem to have paid little attention
to engineering difficulties. Natural obstacles and private
property were alike disregarded ; and acting upon the
mathematical axiom, that a straight line between two given
points is the shortest, the Roman road generally pursued a
straight course. From personal examination of remaining
traces of it, durability was aimed at. The central part
consisted of strata of gravel and cement, and the surface
was paved with large stones, and near the principal towns
with granite. At the point where the road crossed Garrion-
gill, a branch struck off northward — passed a short way to

12 HISTORICAL SKETCHES OP THE

the west of Newmains — crossed the Calder at a hollow part
almost mid-way between Murdoston house and the turnpike
road to Stirling, and thence, ran on in a direct line to Castle-
carey, where one of the principal Roman forts was, and
there the road terminated.

The only other memorial of Roman antiquity is the tumu-
lus, near G-arrkm-bridge. On approaching Garrion-bridge,
the attention will be arrested by a mound, on the edge of
the public road, marked by a solitary oak tree. When this
road was being constructed, several years ago, there were
considerable quantities of stones around the base of the
tumulus, which had apparently been collected, at different
periods, from the surface of the neighbouring fields. They
were deemed very suitable for road metal, and the process
of removing them for this use was proceeded with, when
stone coffins, and other antique memorials of a bygone age,
appearing, it became obvious that the spot had been the
burial-place of warriors and nobles, at a period which
carried us far back into the antiquities of our country.
These discoveries having come to the knowledge of the late
Sir James Steuart of Coltness, on whose property the tumu-
lus was, he very properly gave immediate orders that the
opening in it should at once be filled up, and no further
injury done to so very interesting a memorial of the olden
time.

In proximity to the tumulus, but a little way to the
south, and near the margin of the river, stood the venerable
tower of Garrion. Of late years this tower, and its antique
appearance, have been greatly concealed by the modern

PARISH OP OAMBUSNETHAN. 13

buildings which have been erected around it. Previous to
the repairs made on it, and the erection of a very tasteful
mansion, the tower itself had nothing peculiar to distinguish
it from the small baronial towers so very commonly met
with in the south of Scotland ; many of which are fast fall-
ing into ruins. It was in some respects a place of strength,
as well as of residence. According to the uniform plan
followed in the internal arrangements, the lower part was
vaulted, and was most secure. The second division was
one large apartment — serving the double purpose of a kit-
chen and dining-hall. The upper division contained two or
three small sleeping apartments, reached by a very narrow
spiral stair. The date of its erection has not been ascer-
tained. Two things, however, are certain, it is centuries
old, and, in the days alike of Popery and Prelacy, was the
favourite summer residence of the Archbishops of Glasgow ;
Camfcusnethan, as already stated, having being one of their
mensal kirks. James Blackadder was created the first
Archbishop of Glasgow in 1484. He was succeeded by
James Beaton, uncle to Cardinal Beaton, from 1509 till 1539.
He was a cunning intriguer, especially in political matters ;
and as he lavished a great deal of money on church property,
it is not improbable that Garrion tower may have been built
during his administration. Gavin Dunbar, who was present
at the condemnation of Patrick Hamilton, our first Scottish
martyr — who gave his sanction to the death of Kennedy and
Russell at Glasgow — and who, annoyed by the effective
preaching of Wishart in the west of Scotland, was the first
to suggest that the civil power should help the church in
putting heretics to death — was Archbishop from 1539 till
1552. James Beaton, a nephew of the Cardinal, succeeded

14 HISTORICAL SKETCHES OF THE

Dunbar in 1552. During his episcopate — in 1560 — Popery,
by a vote of the Scottish parliament, was abolished as the
national religion. Beaton immediately left Scotland, for
France, carrying with him, however, the valuable gold and
silver plate, together with many valuable documents and
records belonging to Glasgow cathedral, vowing they should
never be restored to it till the Catholic faith was again
triumphant in Scotland. He was the last of the Popish
bishops. The first Protestant Archbishop was James Boyd
of Trochrig, from 1581 till 1589. Singular enough, and as
a proof of the many inconsistencies and contradictions in
the public life of James VI., he restored the Popish Beaton
to his title and emoluments in 1598; but Beaton never
returned to Scotland, and died at Paris in 1603, at a very
advanced age. James was on his way to London, to ascend
the throne of England, when he received intelligence of
Beaton's death, and at once promoted Spottiswood to the
vacant see. Spottiswood, the historian of the Scottish
church, was advanced to the see of St. Andrews, and
had the honour of crowning Charles I. in 1633. He was
succeeded in Glasgow by Bishop Law, from 1615 till 1632,
and Law by Bishop Lyndsay, in 1633. Lyndsay was
Bishop during the famous General Assembly which met in
the cathedral of Glasgow in 1638, but grave charges having
been instituted against him before this Assembly, and proven,
he was deposed and excommunicated. When Prelacy was
set up in Scotland by Charles II., in 1661, Andrew Fairfowl,
who had been Presbyterian minister at Leith, was created
Bishop of Glasgow. He must have been the occasional
occupant of Garrion tower. Bishop Burnet, in his " His-
tory of his own Times," characterises Fairfowl " as having

PARISH OF GAMBUSNETHAN. 15

been insinuating and crafty — a better physician than a
divine — scarcely free from scandals — a man, also, who had
not only sworn the covenants, but persuaded others to do
so. It has been told of him that when a person one day in
conversation with him objected to swear the covenants, be-
cause they went against his conscience, the Bishop replied,
" there were some good medicines that could not be chewed,
but were to be swallowed down without any farther exam- .
ination." Fairfowl was succeeded by Alexander Burnet, a
hater of Presbyterian rule, and whose favourite maxim was,
44 the only way to deal with a fanatic was to starve him."
lie was the chief promoter of persecution in the west of
Scotland during the bloody times of Charles II. — a meddler
in some matters which did not belong to him — and, for such
intermeddling, came ultimately to be deprived of his bish-
opric.

One of the successors of Burnet was Bishop Paterson,
who was so devoid of feeling as actually to offer insult to
two females, as they were led to the scaffold, saying to
them, " you would never hear a curate pray, but you shall
hear one now." They, however, disappointed both bishop
and curate, as, by agreement, they commenced singing the
twenty- third Psalm, in so loud and firm a key, as utterly
to drown the curate's voice, as he proceeded to read from
the Service Book. Paterson was a worthless man. Sir
Walter Scott, in a foot-note to " FountainhalUs Chrono-
logical Notes," mentions, that to such an extent did he carry
his profligacy, as actually to introduce it into the pulpit.
He had given his promise to a lady that he would be think-
ing of her when in the delivery of his sermon ; and, in token

16 HISTORICAL SKETCHES OF THE

of it, ho would, at a particular passage, lift his bandstrings
and kiss them. From that day he was nicknamed u Bishop
Bandstrings." So very odious was he in the estimation of
the Glasgow students, that they actually burned him in
effigy on the public street, without receiving any hinderance
from the civic authorities. He was the last of the Glasgow
bishops, having been ejected at the period of the Revolution.
He then retired into private life, and died in Edinburgh in
1703.

In these brief notices of the episcopal proprietors, and
occasional occupants of Garrion tower, special mention
must be made of the immediate predecessor of Paterson —
Archbishop Leighton. He was, first of all, Presbyterian
minister in the parish of Newbattle, near Edinburgh — -then,
ten years principal of the college of Edinburgh — then,
through the craft of the wily James Sharpe, created Bishop
of Dunblane — and, about 1670, became Archbishop of Glas-
gow. During his residence in Edinburgh, and previous to
his going over to the side of Prelacy, he lived on terms of
great intimacy with James Steuart of Coltness, then provost
of Edinburgh. His occasional visits to Garrion tower, and
Cambusnethan parish, led him to be occasionally at Colt-
ness. In the " Coltness Collection of Papers," published by
the "Maitland Club," there are interesting records of dis-
cussions between Leighton and members of the Coltness
family. They did not forget what his father had suffered
at the hands of Prelacy in London, nor his own early pre-
dictions for Presbyterianism, and on some occasions they
must have handled him roughly, and said severe things
to him. Thomas Steuart — who afterwards became Sir

PARISH OF CAMBUSNETHAN. 17

Thomas, and who suffered severely during the persecuting
period — had one day, during dinner, excited in the bishop's
mind so much of painfulness of feeling, that, on returning
home, he was so chafed in spirit, as to have said, " that
young man Thomas is as hot as pepper. He was during
dinner never off this turf of Scotland. He has got a Pres-
byterian crotchet in his pericranium, and will never get it
out again. I wish I had stayed at home, and chewed gra-
jnel/' The case of Leighton will come to be again noticed,
in the next lecture, in connexion with the troubles of the
persecuting period. Take him all in all, he was probably
the best bishop who has slept under the roof of the old tower
of Garrion ; and, when I sometimes look at the old roofless
structure in Cambusnethan church -yard, I do not forget
that, as Leighton loved retirement, and must have spent
many quiet seasons at Garrion tower, his voice in proclaim-
the gospel — and he was highly evangelical in his views —
must have been frequently listened to within these now
roofless walls.

We shall now proceed to another object of antiquarian
interest. Striking off from the bottom of the Main Street
of Wishaw, along the Cleland road, towards Coltness mill
and bridge, and before crossing the bridge, the attention of
a careful observer will be arrested by the evidence which
the bank on the right hand bears of having been at one time
exposed to the severe action of fire. In the " Coltness
Collection of Papers, " already alluded to, some of which
were written more than two hundred years ago, there is
particular notice taken of these burned banks, and their
charred appearance accounted for. It would appear that,
c

18 HISTORICAL SKETCHES OF THE

at the point where the streamlet which flows through
Temple-gill joins the Calder, seams of coal, of considerable
thickness, and affording a plentiful supply of fuel, jutted
out. That particular locality was called " Col Ness " Ness
is the old Saxon term for a nose, projection, or headland,
and forms the terminal syllable of the names of many places
in the kingdom — as Gartness, Inverness, Blackness, Sheer-
ness. The inhabitants of Cambusnethan, during last
century, when speaking of Coltness house or estate, in their
ordinary conversation, never said u Coltness, " but invari-
ably u Col Ness ;" thus, by their pronunciation, keeping
up the original name — the coal point — which ultimately
came to give a name to the now extensive and valuable
Coltness estate. At the point above referred to, where the
coal projected and the streamlet joins the Calder, it would
appear, from the information contained in the earlier papers
of the " Coltness Collection," there was a tradition, that,
several centuries before, a village had stood there. It
was alluded to as " the auld tonn o' Col Ness." There
was another tradition, that, when the country was being
invaded " in Wallace's days," a party of English soldiers,
bent on pillage and devastation, sacked " the auld toun o'
Col Ness," and then set it on fire. The coal having caught
fire, the conflagration spread northward along the bank
fronting the river Calder, and, after a lapse of between five
and six hundred years, the incinerated banks remain as a
record of devastation, only top frequently occurring at a
period when Scotland had not yet succeeded in her struggle
for national independence.

A little way beyond Coltness bridge, on the east bank of \

PARISH OF CAMBUSNETHAN. 19

the C alder, there is a mineral well, which was dedicated to
Saint Winifred, and which has been vulgarly called "Wincie
well." Saint Winifred was a nun, belonging to North Wales,
and very nearly related to the royal family. In a dark and
superstitious age, it was not a very difficult thing, for inter-
ested parties, to attribute miraculous virtues to the waters
of particular wells whose waters were only medicinal. And
as a particular well in North Wales was reputed to possess
miraculous virtues through the merits of Saint Winifred,
many wells, in various places, were either consecrated to
her, or regarded as sharing very highly in her patronage
and curative virtue. The " Wincie well' 7 was one of them;
and in the " Coltness Papers" it is stated that, in supersti-
tious times, oblations to the Saint were tied with scarlet
thread to the bushes around " Wmcie well," as an expres-
sion of the gratitude of those who regarded themselves as
having been cured by the marvellous virtue of its waters.

Leaving the locality of " the auld toun o" Col Ness," we
shall now pass down to the vale of Clyde—- to the site of
"the auld kirk." The earliest notice which we have as yet
met with, bearing on the ecclesiastical affairs of this parish,
does not carry us beyond the middle of the twelfth century.
During the reign of William the Lion, the barony of Cam-
busnethan was granted to W T illiam Finnemund. The
Abbot of Kelso was then titular over the church lands, at
least in the lower part of the barony. At that period it
was customary for the barons to have private chapels in
their manor-houses. On conditions, which have already
been referred to, William Finnemund was permitted to
have a private chapel in his manor-house, which was dedi-

20 HISTORICAL SKETCHES OF THE

cated to Saint Michael. It is very probable that the
accommodation in this private chapel was soon found too
limited for the necessities of the district and that it became
necessary to erect a regular place of worship, with its
accompanying burial ground, a little to the westward of the
manor-house, on a portion of land which in earlier docu
ments is called " Kirkfield,'* 1 but in more modern documents
the lands of " Carbarns." This is the more probable, as in
one of the earliest records in the " Cartulary of Kelso," and
during the reign of William the Lion, there is a specific
reference to to the church u de Kambusnaythan." In the
same " Cartulary" there is a copy of a charter granted by
the Abbot to Walter, Bishop of Glasgow, in the year 1232,
in which Cambusnethan is mentioned as being within the
Glasgow diocese. The last notice of Cambusnethan, in the
u Cartulary of Kelso," occurs in a long list of privileges
granted by Pope Innocent V. to the Abbey, in which Cam-
busnethan is mentioned as one of the churches over which
the Abbot of Kelso had supervision. That the old church
of Cambusnethan, in the vale of Clyde, was also dedicated
to Saint Michael, may be presumed from the following
circumstance. In the Records of the Lords of Council,
under date 10th October, 1495, there is an entry to the
following effect. The Lady Sommerville, of Cambusnethan,
had protested against John Inglis, the chaplain, having any
right to certain church lands in Cambusnethan which he
claimed and enjoyed, so long as he had not produced any
charter from the King, shewing that he had a royal grant,
entitling him to said lands. The chaplain, however, pro-
duced his titles, and the minute of council then runs on in
the following terms : "Anent ye foundatione of a chappelancy

PARISH OF CAMBUSNETHAN. 21

of Saint Michaelis chappel of Cambuskinethan, one ye ferd
day of Julii in ze yere of God i m , iii c , lxxxvi. yeris. Item,
a charter maid be AVilliam Sommeraule, Lord of Carnwath,
of ye dait of ye xx day of Aprile, in ye zere of God i*o,
iiii c xxiii yeris, and als producit a sentence definitive gevin
be ye officiale of Glasgow aganis Lady Sommeraule in ye
said matter." As Baron Sommerville, of Cambusnethan,
was then probably the only heritor in the parish, the burden
of the expense of the erection of the church may have fallen
upon him. The date of its erection cannot be accurately
ascertained. Nothing of it at present exists, beyond the
wall around the burial place of the progenitors of the Right
Honourable Lord Belli aven, where they have been laid for
nearly three centuries, and the outline of the foundation of
the western portion of the church, covered with soil which
has accumulated for the last two hundred years. It was a
place of Roman Catholic worship long before the period of
the Reformation, and must have then been in a substantial
state, as it served for a parochial church a century later.
In a testament executed by Allan Steuart, of Allanton, on
the 12th July, 1547, the name of John Lyndesay occurs as
curate of Cambusnethan, and as one of the subscribing wit-
nesses. On the 21st August, 1552 — eight years before the
Reformation from Popery was publicly proclaimed in Scot-
land — the Lady of Cambusnethan made her last will, and
a copy of this testament exists among the " Commissary
Records " of Glasgow. One of the subscribing witnesses
subscribes thus, — u Joannis Lyndesay, curatus de Cambus-
nethan ;'' thus intimating to all whom it may now concern,
that John Lyndesay was the curate, officiating in Cambus-
nethan kirk, at least 312 years ago. The godly and

22 HISTORICAL SKETCHES OF THE

enlightened in Scotland were then awaking from the slum-
bers of Popery, and were daring to test its dogmas by the
Scriptures of truth. The martyrdom of Patrick Hamilton
and others — the ministry of Wishart and Wallace, and
Mill and Knox — in some measure had prepared the Scottish
barons for the testimony which they bore against Popery in
the year 1560 ; and if John Lyndesay was then alive, he
must, in that year, have said and sung his last mass at the
altar of " the auld kirk o' Cam'nethan."

By a vote of the Protestant ncbles, in Parliament assem-
bled, Popery was formally condemned and abolished, while
Protestantism was voted in its stead — the venerable Lord
Lyndsay, rising in his place, and alluding to his extreme
age, declared, " that since God had spared him to see that
day, and the accomplishment of so worthy a work, he was
ready to say with Simeon, c Nunc dimittis^ " It was one
thing, however, to silence and eject the curates and the
Papal clergy, but another thing to supply their places with
Protestant ministrations. The resources of Protestantism
in Scotland, to meet the spiritual necessities of the nation
at that most critical period in her religious history, were
very scanty. There were only twelve ministers in Scotland
at that time whose principles could be confided in, or who
were deemed competent to have a full dispensation of gospel
ordinances put into their hands. Again, not more than one
individual out of a hundred, out of the general body of the
people, could read. Under these circumstances, the leaders
in the Protestant movement had to devise temporary expe-
dients. The country was mapped out into twelve sections
: — a minister was appointed to superintend each section —

PARISH OF CAMBUSNETHAN. 23

and the whole of Clydesdale and Ayrshire was placed under
the charge of Mr. John Willock. Among the expedients
which the emergency occasioned were, the preparation of a
prayer-book, to be used in public worship, and the appoint-
ment of duly qualified persons to be " readers " of the
Scriptures on the Lord's day, and other days of public
worship. The prayer-book assisted " the reader " in con-
ducting the devotions of the people ; and when individuals
of this order possessed approved gifts, they were permitted
to give "a word of exhortation, to solemnize marriages,
and, in special cases, to administer baptism/' The interior
of the sanctuary required to be re-modelled, and adapted to
the new modes of worship. The altar and other pieces of
furniture, pertaining to the abolished ritual, were removed.
In many churches, as yet, there was no pulpit, because it
was very seldom the superintendent could be present, or
other minister competent to occupy it The only article of
sanctuary furniture, pertaining to the Romish service, which
was deemed worth retaining was the small portable reading
desk, on which the bulkier service-books were laid during
the celebration of mass. It was called u the lectern? 9 or
u lettern" probably from the French word lutrin, or the
Latin word lego. Even so late as the beginning of the
present century, it was customary for old people, especially
in rural districts in Scotland, to speak of the precentor's
desk as " the lettern"

It appears that "John Lyndesay" was the last of the
Romish curates in Cambusnethan. As the Act of Parlia-
ment had abolished Popery, it also ejected him from his
office and living in Cambusnethan, His place was supplied

24 HISTORICAL SKETCHES OF THE

by a reader, whose name was John Hamiltoune, whose
stipend was fixed at xxlbs. and " the thryd of his vicarage,"
amounting to viK). xiijs. and iiijd. In the year 1507 he was
succeeded by William Nassmyth, whose stipend was xxlbs.
Mr. Thomas Muirhead, son of the laird of Lauchop, was
minister of the parish of Cambusnethan from November,
1603, till May, 1634, in which month he died. It would
appear that during his ministry the services of " a reader "
were deemed requisite, as in the copy of Mr. Muirhead's
last will and testament, engrossed in the Commissary Ke •
cords of Glasgow in November, 1635, it purports to have
been written by u Mr. Francis Kincaid, r eider in Cambus-
nethan." Mr. Muirhead's successor was Mr. James Hamil-
ton, who belonged to the Hamiltons of Broomhill — the family
from which the Hamiltons of Wishaw are descended, and
was a brother to the first Lord Belhaven. He was admitted
minister at the old kirk of Cambusnethan in December,
1635, and was minister there in the year 1650, when it was
resolved to abandon the old kirk, and build a new place of
worship in a more central and convenient part of the parish,
on the lands of Greenhead. Up to this date the manse had
been at Kirkhill ; but, though a new manse was as much
needed as a new kirk, Mr. Hamilton objected to leave the
fertile and sunny slopes of Kirkhill, and go to reside on the
cold, wet soil at Greenhead. An excambion, under these
circumstances, was effected between the glebe lands at
Kirkhill and equivalent lands at a place then called "Croft-
flathead," the site of the present manse of Cambusnethan.
Mr. Hamilton was minister in the parish during the troub-
lous days of Charles I. and the earlier years of Charles II.
He played rather a prominent part of the game in which

PARISH OF CAMBUSNETHAN. 25

the notorious James Sharpe, who became Archbishop of
Saint Andrews, was the prime mover. The part which Mr.
Hamilton acted led to his elevation, and, at the same time,
to his removal from the parish ; but the particulars properly
fall under the topic of the next lecture, — the share which
the parish had in the troubles and sufferings of the perse-
cuting period.

Mr. James Hamilton, of Udston, who died in the year
1 628, and who was the near kinsman of William Hamilton,
of Wishaw, seems to have taken an interest in the old
church of Cambusnethan. In his last will and testament,
he left in legacy " ane hundrid pundis to buy ane bell to the
kirk of Cambusnethan, and this hundrid pundis to be warit
be the sicht of Mr. Thomas Muirhead, Broomhill, and my
oy, and to this use allenarilye." The will of Mr. Hamilton
in regard to the said bell was faithfully executed. The
" hundrid pundis" were " warit" on it. So long as the
old kirk could be occupied in the valley, the fine tones of
this bell were regularly heard, summoning the parishioners
to worship, and whenever a corpse was being borne to where
u the rude forefathers of the hamlet" slept. The kirk was
then very old, and soon became so uncomfortable that it
had to be abandoned ; but, in Mr. Hamilton's latter will,
it had been expressly provided that the bell was to be the
kirk bell, and " for that use allenarilye.'" Consequently, on
the erection of the new church on the lands of Greenhead,
the bell was elevated into its new belfry, and there it swung
and chimed for two hundred years. So much for the origin
of the old bell, and its history. When the church at Green-
head, in its turn, became ruinous and roofless, the bell

25 HISTORICAL SKETCHES OF THE

continued to remain in its place for years — an interesting
relic of the first Protestant place of worship in the parish.
It became necessary, however, to remove it from its old
belfry, much to the regret of the schoolboys, who liked to
scramble up to it and cause it speak out its fine silvery
tones. It was laid aside in safety, but where it now is few
are aware. The old folks, comparing its tones with those
of the new bell at Cambusnethan, feel no hesitation in say-
ing they were by far the richer of the two. The will of the
testator, however, exists on record, describing, in that fine
old Scotch phrase — of such importance in the language of
Scotch conveyancing — that " the hundrid pundis" were for
a kirk bell, and "for that use allenarilye"

The old kirk in the valley having been erected previous
to the Reformation, was internally sectioned off for tire
services of Popish worship. This may be inferred from the
circumstance, that, even in Protestant times, the portion of
it where the services had been chaunted continued to be
called u the choir." The Sommervilles of Cam'nethan had
been in the practice, for ages, of burying their dead " in
the choir" of the church. About the middle of the seven-
teenth century, the barony of Cambusnethan became the
property of Sommerville of Drum, and he came and resided
on it. During this residence one of his daughters died. He
was about to bury her in the choir, in the graves of his
forefathers, when Walter Steuart of Allanton thought pro-
per to take steps to prevent this. There is a high probabil-
ity that there was a good deal of family feeling then existing
on both sides, and that Allanton thought fit to interpose
the weight of his influence on the occasion and manner

PARISH OF COIBUSNETHAN. 27

referred to. The reason which he assigned for preventing
Sommerville from burying in the choir was, that the General
Assembly had passed an Act forbidding any farther burying
within churches. Sommerville was disposed to set the Act
of the Assembly at defiance. Allanton, on the other hand,
would not resile from the step he had already taken ; and,
being an elder of the church, got the Presbytery to convene
in the emergency, and thus interpose their authority to
restrain Sommerville. The Presbytery, finding that the
Act of the Assembly was so explicit as to tie up their
hands, instructed their clerk to write to Sommerville, signi-
fying that he ought to respect the authority and injunction
of the supreme court of the church ; and, knowing the
temper of the man they had to deal with, affixed to their
communication this emphatic clause, that if he forcibly
buried his dead within the choir, he would undoubtedly be
visited with the highest censures of the church. He was
about to set the Presbytery at defiance, when his friends
advised him, for the sake of peace, to submit. • He did so,
and buried his dead at the east gable of the choir, without,
"placing a large monument, with much imagery and several
inscriptions engraven thereon, over the burial place." We
shall again hear of this monument, and of the misfortune
which befel it, as a further illustration of the bad feeling
existing at the time between some of the principal families
in the parish.

At the period to which we have now advanced — the
middle of the seventeenth century — the Steuarts of Allan-
ton, the representatives of a very old family, were rapidly
rising in wealth and influence in the parish; while the

28 HISTORICAL SKETCHES OF THE

Sommervilles of Cambusnethan, once the principal family,
were as rapidly declining. Indeed, so very reduced in ex-
tent had the Cambusnethan estate now become, from what
it had at one time been, that in very few years the remaining
portion, chiefly around the mansion-house, was for ever
severed from a family with whom it had been for the previous
three hundred years. The baronial pride of the last repre-
sentative of the Sommervilles of Cambusnethan was, how-
ever, as lofty in ideas of family superiority as ever. By
every possible method, he endeavoured to claim precedence
in all things over the house of Allanton. During the Com-
monwealth, when the fiscal affairs of the nation were entirely
in the hands of Cromwell, the Protector gave orders that
a new rent roll of estates should be made up. This was a
capital opportunity for Sommerville to shew off his rental
to advantage, though at the expense of his pocket, and he
availed himself of it. Steuart of Allanton, on this occasion,
displayed more worldly policy. He could explain why his
rent roll shewed a lower figure than that of his Cam'nethan
friend, and was in the habit of slyly remarking that his
property "was situated in a cold, moorland district, and
was not to be compared with his neighbour's at Cam'nethan,
which lay so bonny and bield." The eleventh Lord Som-
merville, u the gossiping annalist" of his forefathers, thought
fit to shew his spleen against the house of Allanton in a
most unprovoked and unjustifiable manner. He represents
the laird of Allanton as a mere u feuar of the Earl of Tweed-
dale in Aughtermuir, whose predecessors never came to sit
above the salt- foot, at the laird of Cam'nethan's table, which
for ordinary every Sabbath they dined at, as did most of the
honest men in the parish of any account." No language,

PARISH OF CAMBUSNETHAN. 29

in that age, could have been more contemptuous; and
serves to illustrate how maliciously feudalism could express
itself with its expiring breath. The success of the measures
which Mr. Steuart had adopted, to prevent the Sommervilles
from burying " in the choir," was dexterously followed up.
Mr. Steuart was induced to take another step. He was an
elder of the General Assembly ; and in a petition to the
Assembly, in the year 1649, he set forth the wretched, im-
passable state of the roads in the lower part of the parish,
especially in winter, coupled with his distance, and that of
others, from the parish church, and craving that the Assem-
bly would pass an Act for building another church in
some convenient place beyond Aughterwater — offering, at
the same time, to give ground for a manse and glebe, while
contributing a very liberal sum, along with the heritors in
the upper part of the parish, toward the building of this
church. He was obviously stealing a march on the laird of
Cam'nethan, as he expected the Act to be passed at the
very next sitting of the Assembly. In this, however, he
was disappointed. The Duke of Hamilton was titular of
the teinds, and his trustees objected, on the ground that if
the Assembly granted the prayer of this petition, provision
would require to be made for two stipends, which, it was
alleged, the value of the whole teinds would not admit.
The objection so weighed with the Assembly as to lead
them to refuse granting the prayer of the petition. Mr.
Steuart, however, renewed it under a different form. He
set forth that the church was becoming old ; and being
situated at the very lower extremity of the parish, was very
inconveniently located for the parishioners ; and, therefore,
that a new church should be erected, in a more central and

30 HISTORICAL SKETCHES OF THE

convenient position. His brother, who was then provost of
Edinburgh and proprietor of Coltness, encouraged him in
his endeavour to obtain a new church. The proprietor of
Cambusnethan violently opposed this measure. The church
had hitherto been in close proximity to his mansion-house,
and along with this circumstance there were very strong
local and family associations which would cease to exist if
the church were removed farther up the parish. He at
length gave way, on condition that the church was erected
on the lands of Greenhead. These lands were not now in
his possession, but they formerly had been a portion of the
Oam'nethau estate, and his baronial pride gratified itself on
the bare recollection of what the estate had once been, and
conjured up visions, pleasing to himself, out of things which
had passed away.

The parties who undertook to execute the mason and
wright work of the new church were John Miller, in Water-
saugh, and Alexander King. They calculated on finishing
the work, in at least twelve months, for about three thousand
merks, the parishioners carting the materials. The bargain,
however, does not seem to have been gone into in a very
business manner. There were misunderstandings, and
heart-burnings among the heritors, which greatly tended to
retard the work, and occasion additional expense. Instead
of three thousand merks, the new church cost nearly seven
thousand ; and instead of being finished in one year, seven
years elapsed before it was fit to be occupied. In the papers
of that time it is stated, that, owing to long exposure to the
weather, a great deal of the wood was actually rotten before
the church could be slated.

PARISH OF CAMBUSNETHAN. 31

One or two incidents may be mentioned to illustrate the
state of feeling, on church matters, subsisting among the
principal families at that period. The removal of the church
from the vale of Clyde was displeasing to one parfc}% and
the delay in completing the new one at Greenhead must
have irritated another party. Age had 'undoubtedly rendered
the old church uncomfortable ; but some persons, interested
in the early and entire abandonment of it, thought fit to
unroof a portion of it, and thus expose the congregation
during the inclemency of weather. A portion of the coping
of the east gable was, under cloud of night, thrown down,
so as to render the structure still more ruinous ; and very
unfortunately — if not designedly — some stones fell on the
beautiful monument, with its "imagery," which Sommerville
of Drum had erected over the grave of his daughter, and
broke it into four pieces. This was a very untoward event,
It revived the question as to the right to bury in the choir ;
and the result was, that as the old church was soon to be
abandoned as a place of worship, Allanton deemed it expe-
dient to discontinue burying his dead at the old church. He
enclosed a tomb, as his family burial place, at the back wall
of the new church at Greenhead. When the old church
had been abandoned as a place of worship, the Act of
Assembly prohibiting from burying in churches ceased to
take effect at the old kirk of Cambusnethan. The Sommer-
villes resumed their right to bury " in the choir," and to this
day the spot is the burial-place of the Cam'nethan family.
The Steuarts of Coltness — a younger branch of the house of
Allanton — retained their burial-place " in the choir." The
Coltness tomb was, a few years ago, built up, having re-
ceived the mortal remains of the last male representative of
this distinguished family.

32 HISTORICAL SKETCHES OF THE

After a delay of years, the new church at Greenhead was
at length completed. Before being formally opened for
public worship, it became necessary to allocate among the
heritors their respective proportions of church accommoda-
tion. Unexpected difficulties prevented a speedy or com-
fortable division of the pews. The heritors had now for
years been familiar with conflicting views and interests, and
this fresh ground of variance among them led to a violent
and protracted struggle. The proprietor of Coltness had
been very liberal in contributing to the building of the
church, perhaps more so than any of the other heritors, and
on this account he considered himself entitled to much the
larger share of church accommodation. But Wishaw, Green,
Muirhouse, Lamington, and other heritors, were dissatisfied
with the proportion alloted to them, or with the particular
position in which their proportion was situated. The grand
question, however, was, who was best entitled to the seat
fronting the pulpit, or the most honoured seat in the church?
The patronage of the church being in the Cam'nethan family,
they very naturally considered they had a priority of claim.
Steuart of Coltness, as has already been noticed, had most
generously contributed a large sum beyond his legal share
in the building of the church ; and, having taken a peculiar
interest in superintending the work while in progress, con-
sidered that, on these accounts, he was entitled to preced-
ence. Steuart of Allanton, however, had been the first to
move in the initiatory steps to obtain a new church, on its
present site, and had carried his measures in the face of
great opposition. Indeed, but for his zeal in the matter, it
was questionable whether a new church would at that time
have been obtained, at least at Greenhead. The area of

PAKISH OF CAMBUSNETHABT. 33

the aisle fronting the pulpit had been claimed by Coltness,
and allocated to him ; but Allanton claimed the gallery in
said aisle as his right, in acknowledgment of the interest
which he had taken in obtaining the new church. Coltness
was the last to accede to the claim of his relative, the pro-
prietor of Allanton. For the sake of securing peace, to
which they had so long been strangers, and which was now,
certainly desirable, he acceded on the following conditions :
that the front of the Allanton gallery should be kept two
feet within the line of the back wall of the church, and that
the front pew of the Coltness seats on the area should extend
five feet beyond the front of the Allanton gallery. The
west gallery of the church was appropriated to the Coltness
estate, and the east gallery to the Cam'nethan and Lam-
ington estates. Such unhappy and protracted proceedings
in the building of churches, and division of church accom-
modation, have been only too common in Scotland since the
Revolution settlement. Even Dissenting churches have not
been altogether exempted from the injurious influence of
similar proceedings. The popular element in churches is all
the better for a safety-valve ; and though the superfluous
steam, in escaping, be sometimes noisy enough, yet it is
well that it does find vent, as safety and peace are, in
ordinary cases, thereby speedily secured. It will, however,
be always a matter of regret, with all serious-minded per-
sons in a congregation, when two or three individuals allow
their private and personal interests to over-ride the peace,
prosperity, and edification of a whole church.

The minister of Cambusnethan parish, at the period of
the erection of the church at Greenhead, was Mr. James

34 HISTORICAL SKETCHES OF THE

Hamilton, brother to the first Lord Belhaven. We shall
particularly hear of him again during the persecuting period
in Scotland. In the year 1669, an indulged minister, Mr.
William Vilant, was minister till the year 1684, when he was
imprisoned by order of the Privy Council, and obliged to
find caution to remove from the kingdom within a month.
In the year 1687, a toleration was granted to the banished
ministers to return home. Mr. Yilant availed himself of it,
and was moderator of the Synod of Glasgow and Ayr, which
met that year in Glasgow, in a private house. In the month
of October of that year, the people of Hamilton, of the Pres-
byterian persuasion, were desirous to enjoy his ministry ;
but at a meeting held at Bothwell, 14th February, 1688, Mr.
Vilant u adhered to his acceptance of the call of the parish
of Cambusnethan.'' The Synod, which met at Paisley on
the first Tuesday of April, confirmed Mr. Vilant in his re-
solution to remain at Cambusnethan. His name appears on
the records of the Presbytery of Hamilton for the last time,
on the 21st April, 1791. After this he was installed Pro-
fessor of Divinity at St. Andrews, which office he continued
to occupy during the remainder of his life.

On the 31st May, 1692, a call was given by the parish of
Cambusnethan in favour of Mr. John Muirhead, preacher
of the gospel, who was ordained on the 1st September there-
after, and, after a ministry of forty-one years, died in the
year 1733. He was buried in the old church-yard, and the
inscription on his tombstone is now scarcely legible.

On the 15th January, 1734, "Mr. Lockhart of Cam-
busnethan requested the Presbytery to indke Mr, Craig,

PARISH OP CAMBUSNETHAN. 35

preacher of the gospel, Glasgow, to preach before them at
the next meeting." The opposition in the parish of Cam-
busnethan to Mr. Craig was very formidable, as he seems to
have been unacceptable to the people. It led to an appeal
to the General Assembly, by several heritors and elders.
The Assembly having heard the appeal, " remitted to the
Presbytery of Hamilton, to proceed in the settlement of the
parish as they shall judge best for the edification of the
congregation." The parish continued in a very agitated
state till the 25th January, 1737, when the Presbytery at
last agreed to proceed to admit Mr. Craig. Seven of the
elders gave in a protestation to the Presbytery ; but Mr.
Craig was ordained on the 20th April of that year ; and,
eventually, the protesting elders, refusing to resile from the
grounds of their protestation against Mr. Craig, who had
been intruded upon them as their pastor, were declared to
be no longer elders in said parish. These seven elders, out
of a session of nine members, were John Bell, David Downie,
Robert Keddar, Alexander Cleland, James Prentice, George
Russel, and John Steill. The step which they were neces-
sitated to take, along with all who adhered to them, and
the results which followed their having taken it, will be in
due time narrated.

Mr. Craig's incumbency at Cambusnethan was brief; as
on the 1st January, 1738, a call in his favour was laid on
the table of the Presbytery of Hamilton, by the magistrates
of Glasgow, town council, and general session, as well as
from the particular session of "the middle quarter of Glas-
gow," to be their minister. Mr. Craig accepted the call on
the 28th February, 1738.

36 HISTORICAL SKETCHES OF THE

On the 28th November, 1738, a formal and largely sub-
scribed call was given to Mr. Thomas Cleland, and he was
ordained at Cambusnethan on the 1st March, 1739. He
continued in the parish till 1757.

Mr. Cleland was succeeded by Mr. Gray, a minister of
very popular talents ; but, after a very brief ministry, cir-
cumstances led to his demitting his charge. Mr. Gray was
succeeded by Mr. Howieson, whose ministry, owing to ill
health, was continued only a few years.

The successor of Mr. Howieson was Mr. Kankin, who
was ordained on the 17th August, 1781, and removed to the
North-West Church, Glasgow, on the 8th September, 1785.

Mr. Kankin was succeeded by Mr. Lockhart, who was
ordained at Cambusnethan on the 28th June, 1786, and
was removed to Blackfriars Church, Glasgow, on the 30th
September, 1796.

Mr. Lockhart was succeeded by Mr. John Thomson, on
the 13th July, 1797, who was translated to Dairy on the
18th November, 1802.

Mr. Thomson was succeeded by Mr. Archibald Living-
stone, who was ordained on the 13th May, 1803, and died
on the 26th January, 1852.

Mr. Robert Shaw Hutton, the present minister of the
parish, was admitted on the 17th April, 1851.

The seven elders, who, by a deed of Presbytery, had

PARISH OF CAMBUSNETHAN. 37

been extruded from office in the National Church, on the
28th June, 1737, felt constrained, under the circumstances,
to withdraw from the communion of that church. They
found many adherents to this step; and, after prayerful
consideration of the path of duty, applied for sermon from
the Associate Presbytery on the 1 2th day of the following
month. This infant Presbytery, which had been in exist-
ence for little more than three years, had on its table, in
1737, petitions for sermon from no fewer than upwards of
seventy places. Cambusnethan was one of them. The
Presbytery, unable as yet, from the fewness of their num-
bers, to furnish anything like a regular supply of gospel
ordinances to so many applicants, adopted the expedient of
occasionally sending out two and two of their number on an
extensive mission over the country, at the same time exhort-
ing the petitioners to form themselves into " praying and cor-
responding societies,'' thus maintaining fellowship in private
devotional exercises. The Kev. Ealph Erskine, has the
following entries in his diary : —

"Dunfermline, July 12th, 1737. — We had a Presbytery
in the church — we were appointed, two by two, to go and
keep a day of fasting among the oppressed people. My
brother and I were appointed for Cambusnethan, the first
Wednesday of August coming."

This appointment was duly intimated to the people of
Cambusnethan, and reported by them in the surrounding
districts. The first Wednesday in August fell on the 3d
day of that month. It happened to be the day of an annual
fair at the Kirk of Shotts, for trafficing in what were then
called " soft goods" when both buyers and sellers collected

38 HISTORICAL SKETCHES OF THE

from great distances. The morning was a bright one, and
the market likely to be a good one ; but at an early hour,
and when business had scarcely commenced, the tidings
circulated, with almost telegraphic speed, that Ralph and
Ebenezer Erskine were to preach at Daviesdykes, in Cam-
busnethan, at 12 o'clock. Business was at once arrested,
and the people departed from the market- stance in crowds.
It became a descriptive phrase, in speaking of the breaking
up of the fair, to represent it as resembling " the skailin o y
a kirk;" but to a certainty it was " the skailin d 1 the fair"
as the sellers were so chagrined at the loss of their market
that, out of revenge, they resolved not to return on the next
occasion of the fair. They kept their resolution. Next
year the fair was a very unsuccessful one, and having for a
few years lingered out a feeble existence, it was then given
up. The next entry in Ralph Erskine's diary, bearing upon
the cause at Cambusnethan, is in the following terms : —

" Wednesday \ Aug. 3. — I preached in the tent with my
brother at Cambusnethan, where was a very great auditory.
I had the forenoon ; and after reading the causes of the fast,
prefacing and praying, I preached on Jerem. xiii. 16, " Give
glory to the Lord your God, before he cause darkness.''
Afterwards baptized about twenty -six children. We were
very kindly entertained by the people in that place, and
they seemed to be refreshed by the fast-day's work — the
Lord helping in some measure therein. We kept a session
next day with the elders."

Two years after this, Mr. Ralph Erskine and Mr. Thom-
son of Burntisland paid a visit to Cambusnethan. Mr.
Erskine has the following notes in his diary : —

PAKISH OF CAMBUSNETHAN. 39

" Friday, Sept 14, 1739. — Mr. Thomson and I went to
the parish of Cambusnethan, and next day to a place therein
called Daviesdykes, where we staid all Saturday and Sab-
bath night.

"Sabbath, Sept. 16, 1739. — We preached in Cambus-
nethan parish. My text was, " Unto you is the word of
this salvation sent." The auditory was considerably numer-
ous, from a great many places. I was helped and strength-
ened."

This is a proper place to introduce, for preservation, a
brief notice of the Seven Elders who performed the more
active part of the work in the originating of the Secession
congregation. The senior member was John Bell, resident
proprietor of Aughterhead, then in his 88th year, having
been born in the year 1649. He was ordained to the elder-
ship in the year 1699, and did not long survive the formation
of the Associate congregation. He was succeeded in office
by his son James, who was ordained in November, 1751,
and who died in 1757.

David Downie, who subscribed the protest against Mr.
Craig's settlement, and who took the more prominent part
in opposing that settlement, was born at Cathkers, near
Allanton, in the year 1697. Several generations of the
same name had their residence at Cathkers. It was in the
house of a relative — James Downie, at Easter Kedmyre —
that the seven elders met to draw up and subscribe their
protestation, and gave David Downie his commission to
lodge and support the same before the Presbytery of Ham-
ilton.

40 HISTORICAL SKETCHES OF THE

Robert Keddar, proprietor of a large portion of the land3
of Daviesdykes, gave in a separate protestation in his own
name, as an heritor in the parish, and in the name of several
other heritors and life-renters. It was on his estate the
first place of worship was erected. He was the Synod elder
at the memorable Synod at which the lawfulness of swearing
the Burgess oath led to a schism. He died in August, 1750.
In the session records there is the following entry: " August
19, 1750. For the best mortcloth to Robert Keddar, por-
tioner of Daviesdykes, £3. 12s. Scots."

Andrew Cleland resided in Overtown. His father had
been an elder in the parish in the year 1682, and his own
ordination must have been sometime between 1703 and
1739 ; during which period no session records are now in
existence, to enable us to ascertain the duration of his
eldership. But as his name appears, for the last time, in
minute of July, 1760, he must have officiated as an elder in
the Associate congregation upwards of twenty years.

James Prentice was a portioner in Stane, and was the
son of Archibald Prentice. He was baptized April 15,
1683. His father was one of the sufferers in the troubles
of the persecuting period, as shall be noticed in its proper
place. His name appears on a minute of session 1st Feb-
ruary, 1757? shewing that he had served in the eldership at
Daviesdykes at least twenty years.

- George Russel in Stane was ordained to the eldership on
the 18th July, 1699. He also, like James Prentice, be-
longed to a family who suffered for conscience sake. His

PARISH OF CAMBUSNETHAN. 41

father, David Russel — as we shall afterwards have to
record — was for some time a prisoner in Edinburgh, and
was severely fined in the Tear 1684. George Russel had a
son, David, who was ordained an elder in 1765, and who
was the father of the late Rev. George Russel of the Asso-
ciate congregation, Dairy.

John Steill, the last name on the list, was the eldest son
of James Steill of Liquo. The date and precise duration of
his eldership have not been ascertained. His name appears,
for the last time, on the minutes of session under date
December 9, 1744. He died January 7, 1745.

In consequence of an unpopular settlement in the parish
of Shotts in the year 1738, two of the elders in said parish
seceded, viz., John Wardrop in Forrestburn and James
"Walker of Halkwoodburn, and joined the session of the
Associate congregation of Daviesdykes. For a similar
reason, James Forrest in Sandyland-gate, parish of Carluke,
who had been ordained in April, 1723, seceded, and joined
the session and congregation at Daviesdykes.

When a congregation had been regularly organised at
Daviesdykes, they immediately set about erecting a suitable
place of worship. Having feued a piece of ground from
Robert Keddar of Daviesdykes, they erected a place of
worship in the year 1740, which they found it necessary to
rebuild in the year 1780. They next proceeded to obtain a
settled pastor. The minute of Presbytery under date July
22, 1740, has the following entry: "The Rev. James Mail
reported that he had preached and baptized at Cambusnethan

42 HISTORICAL SKETCHES OF THE

on the second Wednesday of July, but that he had not
moderated a call ; and offered his reasons, which were
sustained. 1 ' The congregation having repeatedly renewed
their petition for a moderation, the Presbytery, at a meeting
in Perth, September 22, 1741, "considering what modera-
tions they can grant at this time," appointed the Kev.
Andrew Clerkson to moderate in a call at Cambusnethan,
on the second Wednesday of November next.' 1 On said
day — 17th November, 1741 — Mr. Clerkson, after sermon,
moderated in a call, which was unanimously given to Mr.
David Horn. His ordination took place at the " Moorkirk
of Cambusnethan," September 29, 1742. Mr. Fisher preach-
ed the ordination sermon from Isaiah xxxviii. 14.

Mr. Horn's ministry lasted for twenty- six years. In the
year 1768, he was constrained, by the infirmities incident
to advanced age, to demit his charge of u the congregation.
He was a well-informed theologian, and acceptable preacher
of the gospel. He was moderator of the Synod which met
at Stirling in April, 1748, and is understood to have pre-
pared the answers explanatory of several questions in the
u Synod's Catechism'' on the fourth commandment. He
spent his last years on a small property which he had in
Kinross-shire.

In this necessarily brief notice of his ministry, it is proper
to advert to an office-bearer in his church, whose memory
to this day continues to be highly and deservedly revered —
Mr. Archibald Cuthbertson. He was school-master at
Muiryett, precentor to the congregation, and session-clerk,
for the long period of thirty-nine years. The fulness and

PARISH OF CAMBUSlfETHAN. 43

faithfulness of his records, as the scribe of the session and
congregation, give a value to the earlier documents which
cannot be over estimated, and singularly contrast with those
of other of our older congregations, whose earlier records
are sparse and unsatisfactory. Mr. Cuthberston died in
July, 1785.

There was a long vacancy after the demission of Mr.
Horn. He, however, occasionally visited the congregation
in their vacant condition, and ministered to them. During
the vacancy, the congregation brought out calls in favour of
the Rev. Mr. Moir, then of Cumbernauld ; Mr. Ballantyne,
afterwards of Dundee ; Mr. Henderson, afterwards of Glas-
gow; and Mr. Richardson, afterwards of Greenock; but
were unsuccessful in obtaining a fixed pastor till June, 1775,
when Mr. William Scot was ordained. After a ministry of
thirty-six years, his usefulness and comfort having been
broken in upon by untoward circumstances, he ( deemed it
expedient to demit his charge in the year 1811. He died
on the 28th July, 1821, in the 77th year of his age.

During the vacancy which ensued, the congregation
brought out calls in favour of Mr John Tindall, afterwards
of Rathiilet; and of Mr. Daniel McLean, afterwards of
Cupar- Angus ; and last, in July, 1815, in favour of Mr.
Andrew Scott. Mr. Scott received competing calls from
Lilliesleaf, Auchtermuchty, and Girvan. He was ordained
at Daviesdykes on the 9th April, 1816. The lease by which
the congregation held their property at Daviesdykes being
temporary, and being soon after Mr. Scott's ordination to
expire, his people wisely resolved to erect a new place of

44 HISTORICAL SKETCHES OF THE

worship at Bonkle, with a manse. This they did in the
year 1818, at a cost of nearly £1,200; and there, in the
44th year of his ministry, Mr. Scott continues to labour
with all the vigour and acceptability of his earlier years.

At the ^Revolution, the Scottish Parliament abolished
Prelacy, and restored Presbyterianism as the form of church
government. The basis, however, on which the Presbyterian
church was again set up, was far from being satisfactory to
many, especially in the south and west of Scotland. They
regarded the covenants which had been framed, sworn, and
ratified during the church's conflict with Charles I., as the
palladium of the liberties of their country, and considered
that, in the settlement of the church, these covenants ought
to have been recognised. They also felt aggrieved that
some of the earlier Acts passed in the reign of Charles II.
had not been formally condemned and disannulled. They
were farther dissatisfied with the terms of the " Abjuration
oath ;" looking on this oath as setting aside the tests and
oaths of preceding Parliaments. They regarded the General
Assembly as being too compliant with the wishes of those
in favour — as being favourers of Erastianism — as renounc-
ing covenant engagements — and as causing reformation
work, begun by their fathers, to retrograde rather than
advance. Again, at this period a great many pious persons
scattered over the western and southern counties, who had
attached themselves to the persecuted and martyred minis-
ters, and who were then commonly called u society-men,"
strongly sympathised with those who tabled their grievances
before the Assembly. Mr. John M'Millan, who had been
ordained at Balmaghie in 1701, came forward so promi-

PARISH OF CAMBUSNETHAN. 45

neatly in condemnation of the defects and corruptions of the
Revolution church, that a process was commenced against
him, and, in 1704, he was deposed for what were deemed
" irregularities" and "disorderly courses." In the year
1707, he received a harmonious call to be minister of " the
Societies ;" and from this period became the devoted minis-
ter of those, scattered over the country, who were witnesses
for the principles of covenanted Presbyterianism.

There are good reasons for concluding that Clydesdale
should be regarded as the cradle in which the principles of
the Reformed Presbyterian church were nursed. In the
year 1712, at Auchinsaugh, near Douglas, the adherents of
Mr. M'Millan renewed the covenants ; and at the same time
published a testimony to their principles, embodying therein
the constitution of their church. This circumstance, then,
identifies them very much with the upper ward of Lanark-
shire. The next circumstance which we notice is, the origin
of " the Reformed Presbytery." In the year 1742, " the
Associate Presbytery" prepared a draught of a "Renewal
of the Covenants." Mr. Thomas Nairn of Abbotshall took
exception to the terms of this draught, and avowed his
having adopted the views of the old dissenters, in relation to
civil government. He pled that the covenants should be
renewed in the terms expressed in the Auchinsaugh testi-
mony, of date July, 1712. Mr. Nairn, on discovering that
his brethren did not sympathise with his views, renounced
their authority as a Presbytery, and joined himself to Mr.
McMillan ; in conjunction with whom he appears to have
originated "the Reformed Presbytery" on the 1st August,
1743. Mr. Nairn was received into the fellowship of those

46 HISTORICAL SKETCHES OF THE

adhering to the principles of the Auchinsaugh testimony, at
Braehead. In the testimony of the Reformed Presbyterian
church, Braehead is spoken of as " in the parish of Cam-
wath." There is certainly in that parish a place bearing
this name ; but there are reasons to question whether the
Braehead in Carnwath was the place of Mr. Nairn's admis-
sion. There is a place bearing the name of " Braehead "
near to Millheugh, in the parish of Dalserf, more likely to
have been the place in question. In support of this opinion
it may be mentioned, that although Mr. Nairn had with-
drawn from the Associate Presbytery, and been formally
received into another denomination, he seems to have con-
tinued a process against his former co-presbyters ; and they
in defence, in November, 1747, prepared and put into his
hands a libel, which he answered by appearing before them
in January, 1748. On that occasion the friends of Mr.
Nairn, accompanied by witnesses, " attempted to execute a
summons, in the name of the Reformed Presbytery, against
the moderator of the Associate Synod, and all the members
of it, charging them to appear before said Presbytery, at
Braehead, in the parish of Dalserf , on the 15th or 16th day
of February next." The Presbytery's place of meeting is
here so definitely described, as to fix it to the middle ward
of Lanarkshire, and to a locality which was now, more than
formerly, the stated residence of Mr. M ; Millan. When we
bring to recollection that he had been ordained in the year
1701, and that his ministry had been an exhausting one, we
need not wonder that, in 1748, he sought a settled residence
for his old age. He died on the 1st December, 1753, in
the 84th year of his age. He was buried in the church-yard
of Dalserf. The original stone upon his grave contained a

PARISH OF CAMBUSNETHAN. 47

very amp'e inscription, which, it is much to be regretted, is
now illegible. A few years ago a very handsome monument
was erected on the spot, to perpetuate the memory of the
first minister of " the Societies." It also records the minis-
try of his son and successor at Sandhills, near Glasgow, and
of his grandson at Stirling. The former died on the 6th
February, 1808, aged 79 years ; and the latter, on the 20th
October, 1818, aged 68.

In Cambusnethan, and the surrounding parishes, there
must, from an early period, have been many adherents to
the principles of the covenants. Cambusnethan furnished
its full share of honourable witnesses for these principles,
during the period of oppressive and bloody persecution. It
had its favourite meeting places and hiding places. Within
the secluded enclosure of Darmeid multitudes occasionally
congregated to listen to the voices of Cameron, Cargill, and
Renwick ; and though this spot is seldomer referred to than
some others, in the narratives of the persecuted, yet it has
been consecrated by the communings of the best men of the
covenanting period. Owing to its solitude and safety,
it was chosen by them, when their circumstances called, for
prayerful deliberation as to the course which they should
pursue. It is generally understood, that some of the more
decisive measures which were then agreed upon, were plan-
ned in this retreat, and emanated from it. So many asso-
ciations cling to Darmeid, that it is little to be wondered at,
that the children of the persecuted revere it, and revisit it,
remembering u their fathers worshipped in this mountain."
The writer of this narrative recollects being told by a very
old man, that when a boy he and a companion went on a

48 HISTORICAL SKETCHES OF THE

visit to Darmeid. Soon after they had reached it, and were
resting, under the fatigue of their walk thither, they espied
a man entering by the only path by which the place was
approachable, and drawing near the spot where they lay.
They concealed themselves among the long heather. He
came within a few yards of them, and after having for some
time consulted his Bible, he knelt, and for a fall hour poured
out his soul in audible and fervent prayer and thanksgiving
to the God of his fathers — recounting the trials through
which they had passed, and praising God for their faithful-
ness to the principles which they had espoused. Having
concluded his prayer, he withdrew by the path by which he
had entered, occasionally " casting a lingering look behind."
The prayer presented in that scene of solitude, on such a
theme, left an impression on the two young hearts which
the lapse of many years had not in the slightest degree
effaced. In the year 1836, the Rev. John Graham of
Wishawtown — now Dr. Graham of Liverpool — preached a
sermon at Darmeid, when a sum was collected towards the
erecting of a monumental pillar. It has been inscribed, " In
memory of Cameron, Cargill, and Renwick, and their breth-
ren, who worshipped in this spot in the time of the last
persecution. They jeopardied their lives unto the death in
the high places of the field." In Allanton house, Darngavel,
Blackhall, Cam'nethan-mains, and many other pious houses,
the oppressed frequently assembled for prayer and fellow-
ship. When these circumstances are taken into considera-
tion, coupled with the fact that Mr. M'Millan spent his last
years in the neighbourhood, and must have frequently
preached in the parish of Cambusnethan, it will be easily
accounted for that Wishawtown should have been selected

PARISH OF CAMBUSNETHAN. 49

as the site of a place of worship. The period preceding the
organising of a congregation here had been the time of "the
moveable tabernacle." Even so late as the year 1781, there
is reference in the minutes of the Reformed Presbytery to
the congregation of u Stirling and Hamilton:" and as a proof
of the extent of this congregation, the minutes make refer-
ence to the occasional dispensation of the Lord's Supper at
Carluke, Hamilton, Shotts, Motherwell, and Cumbernauld.

The first pastor of the Reformed Presbyterian Congrega-
tion in Wishaw was Mr. Archibald Mason. He was born
in the parish of Old Monkland, on the 15th September,
1 753 ; educated at Glasgow college ; and licensed to preach
the gospel on the 12th August, 1783. He could have
obtained an early settlement in a pastoral charge but for
the peculiar circumstances of the denomination at the time.
The supply of preachers was very limited ; and, as the
people were widely scattered over Scotland, it was found
expedient that his probationary ministry among them should
be prolonged much farther than, under other circumstances,
it would have been. Calls were presented to him from
Perth and Dundee, as well as from the congregation of
Wishawtown and Hamilton. Over the latter he was or-
dained on the 1st May, 1787, at Flemington, in the parish
of Dalziel. The line of the Caledonian Railway passes
within a few yards of the spot where Mr. Mason was or-
dained. The precise spot is marked by a solitary ash tree,
under whose shadow he was ordained by the imposition of
hands ; and on the same spot, on the following Sabbath, he
was introduced to his pastoral charge by the Rev. John
Thorburn of Pentland. Flemington was the principal scene

E

50 HISTORICAL SKETCHES OF THE

of his Sabbath ministrations for several years. His people
were scattered over a very extensive district, on both sides
of the Clyde. Time was requisite to consolidate them ;
and, in their circumstances, it required some deliberation
before determining on a site for erecting a place of worship.
A few years before this, a project had been originated to
commence a village on the Wishaw estate, on the public
road to Lanark; and, as the proprietor wa3 disposed to
grant leases on very favourable terms, a few cottages had
been erected. Mr. Mason's congregation, regarding the site
of this projected village as being somewhat central for them,
resolved to take in lease as much ground as was deemed
suitable for a church, manse, and glebe. Their feu- tack is
dated 5th March, 1792, and was granted to the following
gentlemen, as trustees on behoof of the congregation, viz. :
Gavin Rowet, joiner in Hamilton; Thomas Kussel, far-
mer in Muirhouse ; James Rodger, farmer in Roundtrees ;
Gavin Scot, in Catraige ; and Thomas Muirhead, in Flem-
ihgton. On this property a place of worship was in due
time erected ; and here, for the long period of nearly forty-
five years, Mr. Mason pursued his ministry, beloved not
only by his own people, but by all the godly in the district
who enjoyed his friendship. His mind was enlightened,
reflective, and studious ; and though his oral ministry was
not much known beyond the circle of his own denomination,
he became extensively known, by his writings, throughout
America, as well as Great Britain. The first of his publica-
tions was a " Testimony and Warning against Socinian and
Unitarian Errors,'' in the year 1793, which appeared under
the sanction of the Reformed Presbytery. The second was,
a Observations on the Public Covenants," in the year 1799.

PARISH OF CAMBUSNETHAN. 51

The nations of Europe were then being convulsed by war
and revolution, and ominous changes were passing over the
face of society. Mr. Mason was led to enquire, how far
these were to be regarded as the fulfilment of prophecy ;
and his views on many important points in the Prophetic
Scriptures were published, in a series of works, during the
subsequent twenty-seven years of his ministry. His third
publication was a treatise on " Christ, the Mediatorial
Angel, casting the Fire of Divine Judgment into the Earth,"
which appeared in the year 1800. The fourth was, " The
Spiritual Illumination of the Gentiles, coeval with the Con-
version of the Jews," in the year 1816. The fifth was an
"Inquiry into the Times that shall be fulfilled at Antichrist's
Fall," which was published in 1818, and met with such
an acceptance that a new edition had to be brought out in
the year 1821. The sixth was, " Essays on Daniel's Pro-
phetic Number," in 1821. And the seventh, in the same
year, was, "The Fall of Babylon the Great, by the Agency
of Christ. The eighth was, "A Scriptural View of the
Divine Mystery concerning the Jews' Blindness and Kejec-
tion, and the Coming in of the Gentiles' Fulness," in the
year 1825. The ninth and tenth were in the year 1827,
entitled, "Remarks on the Sixth Vial, symbolising the Fall
of the Turkish Empire," and "The Fall of Popery and
Despotism." The eleventh and last publication was, " Ob-
servations, Doctrinal and Practical, on Saving Faith," which
appeared in the year 1829. In the year 1831, the college
of Schenectady conferred on him the degree of Doctor of
Divinity ; but he did not long survive to enjoy its well-
earned honours. He was now in his 79th year, and after
a confinement to bed of only three days, he departed this

52 HISTORICAL SKETCHES OF THE

life on the 19th November, 1831. He was succeeded by
Mr. John Graham — now the He v. Dr. Graham of Liver-
pool — on the 14th August, 1832 ; who, after a ministry in
Wishaw of fourteen years, was translated to Ayr, on the
13th August, 1846. After a vacancy of a few years, Mr.
John Biggar was ordained over the congregation on the
11th September, 1851 ; but his health having speedily so
far given way as not to hold out a prospect of early re-
covery to ministerial usefulness, the pastoral relationship
was dissolved in 1855. Mr. Robert Thomson Martin, the
present pastor of the congregation, was ordained on the
30th July, 1856.

„,.* Previous to the summer of 1822, the Church at Cambus-
nethan, the United Secession Church at Bonkle, and the
Reformed Presbyterian Church in Wishaw, were the only
places of public worship in the parish. In that year a large
number of persons belonging to the national church thought
fit to withdraw from it, and to place themselves under the
Relief Presbytery of Glasgow. Their first application for
sermon was presented to that Presbytery on the 6th August,
1822, and was complied with. On the Sabbath following —
the 11th day of the month — the Rev. John French, then of
Strathaven, and latterly of South College Street, Edinburgh,
preached twice in the open air ; the Reformed Presbyterian
congregation in Wishaw, on that occasion, kindly granted
him the use of their " tent " to preach from. The members
of the first committee of management were — Robert Gard-
ner, merchant in Wishaw, preses ; John Reid, weaving-
agent in Wishaw, treasurer; Daniel Baillie, wright in
Wishaw, clerk ; Alexander Gardner, ploughman at Wishaw

PARISH OF CAMBUSNETHAN. 53

farm ; John Ferguson, farmer in Thornlie ; William Som-
merville, weaver in Wishaw ; Andrew Gold, mason at
Cambusnethan ; James Marshall, mason in Wishaw; Alex-
ander King, farmer in High Netherton ; John Neilson,
farmer in Low Netherton; John Addie, weaver in Wishaw;
James Steven, weaver in Wishaw ; and James Neilson, in
Meadowhead. On the 27th August, the committee of
management appointed a deputation to wait on the Right
Hon. Lord Belhaven, and endeavour to obtain a suitable
site for a place of worship. They met with encouragement
from his Lordship ; and on the 9th September, at a general
meeting of the congregation, it was u resolved to build as soon
as possible ; and Thomas Watson, James Marshall, Andrew
Gold, and Daniel Baillie were appointed to draw out speci-
fications, in order to ascertain the probable expense, and
instructed to meet for that purpose the following day." The
committee met next day — drew out specifications — submit-
ted them to tradesmen — and, on the 17th of the month,
closed a contract with Mr. James Marshall, to build the
meeting-house, and, on the 23d, with Mr. David Lothian,
for the doors, windows, and roofing of the place of worship.
The internal fittings of the church were executed by Mr.
James Dalziel ; and the house was formally opened for
public worship on the 3d August, 1823, by the Rev. Robert
Cameron, of East Kilbride. Between this date and the
month of October, 1824, the congregation repeatedly con-
vened to deliberate on bringing out a call for a stated pastor.
On the 6th July, 1824, Mr. Peter Brown was licensed by
the Presbytery of Glasgow. He preached for the first time
at Wishaw on the 26th September, and a second time on
the 17th October. On the 26th October the congregation,

54 HISTORICAL SKETCHES OF THE

having been convened, unanimously agreed to petition the
Presbytery to allow Mr. Brown to finish his days of proba-
tion among them ; at the same time craved a moderation
of a call, and fixed the amount of stipend to Mr. Brown,
in the event of his accepting their call. Before this petition
could be presented, the Relief congregation at Hawick had
called Mr. Brown ; and as he had signified his intention to
accept it, the congregation at Wishaw continued in a state
of vacancy. On the 27th June, 1825, they brought out a
call in favour of Mr. John M'Intyre, who, having accepted
it, was ordained among them on the 20th October thereafter.

Immediately upon his ordination, Mr. M'Intyre adopted
suitable measures for having a session regularly chosen, to
assist him in the organisation and government of a church.
Hitherto there had only been a congregation, and as yet the
Lord's Supper had not been administered to them, nor a
body of persons associated in church fellowship. On the
19th March, 1826, James Marshall, mason in Wishaw,
Andrew Gold, mason in Cambusnethan, John Ferguson,
farmer in Thornlie, John Brownlie, miller in Garrion-mill,
and on the 9th July, 1826, William Lindsay, shoemaker at
Windmillhill, were ordained to the eldership. The Lord's
Supper was for the first time dispensed on the 16th July,
1826. William Lindsay died in May, 1851. Andrew Gold
on the 13th November, 1857. John Ferguson on the 10th
February, 1858 : and James Marshall on the 21st August,
1858. John Brownlie of Garrion-mill is, at the present
date, the only surviving member of the original session.
Mr. M'Intyre's health visibly began to give way in the
summer of 1829. His last sermon was delivered on the

PAKISH OF CAMBUSNETHAN. 55

4th October of that year. He died on the 3d March, 1830,
in the 33d year of his age. The public obituary notices, at
the time, bore to him the following testimony : —

" His short, but splendid career, and great promise of
future usefulness, will long be remembered with mingled
feelings of pleasure and regret."

On the 6th September, 1831, the congregation petitioned
the Presbytery for a moderation in a call. The Presbytery
appointed it to take place on the 27th of that month. On
that day the candidates were — the Rev. Peter Brown,
Hawick ; Mr. James Boyd, now Dr. Boyd of Campbelton ;
Mr. Alexander M'Coll, late of Berwick, and now of Niagara
Falls, State of New York ; Mr. James Hamilton, late of
Largo ; and Mr. James Russel, now of the West United
Presbyterian Church, Old Kilpatrick. The call by a great
majority, turned out in favour of Mr. Brown ; and having,
in due form, been transmitted to the Presbytery of Kelso,
in whose bounds Mr. Brown then was, and he having
accepted it, was admitted at Wishaw, by the Presbytery of
Glasgow, on the 22d December, 1831.

The congregations which have been more recently formed
within the bounds of Cambusnethan are those of Wishaw
Parish Church, the Evangelical Union Church at Stane, the
Free Church at Cambusnethan, and the Primitive Methodist
Church and Roman Catholic congregation in Wishaw.

There are no buildings of very great antiquity in the
parish. Reference has already been made to the existing
ruins of the old church in the vale of Clyde, and to the old

56 HISTORICAL SKETCHES OF THE

Tower of Garrion. The original house of Allanton was a
tower, the greater portion of which required to be taken
down, when the present mansion was erected, in the year
1788. A portion of the original building still exists. On
the lintel of a door, the date 1591 is inscribed, but whether
this is the date of the erection of the tower is uncertain.
When Coltness came into the possession of the Steuarts, the
mansion-house was a little tower-house, containing a vault
and two rooms, one above the other, with garrets ; but Sir
James added a kitchen and six fire rooms, before bringing
his family from Edinburgh to Coltness. The present house
is comparatively modern, and has been very greatly improved
and enlarged by the present proprietor. The principal por-
tion of Wishaw house is of recent erection. The older
portion appears to have been built in the year 1665. Cam-
nethan house is one of the finest architectural structures in
the vale of Clyde, and was erected about forty years ago.
There is not a house in the Burgh of Wishaw but has been
erected within the last eighty-two years.

PARISH OF CAMBUSNETHAN. 57

$\t Mttxmxh of QUvudan.

In a Historical Sketch of the Parish of Cambusnethan,
it has been deemed proper to give historical notices of the
older and principal families in it. The Steuarts of
Allaton, on account of the high antiquity of their ancestry,
are entitled to the first notice.

His Royal Highness the Prince of Wales has several
Scotch titles, and the title which takes precedence is "Great
Steward of Scotland." This title was in existence during
the eleventh century. " Steward " is a Celtic compound.
41 Sti " denotes a house, and " ward " a keeper. " Steward"
is of the same import as u seneschal," which signifies the
senior servant, and is synonomous with our more modern
term " chamberlain." Thejirst Great Steward of Scotland
was Walter, who died in the year 1089. The second was
Allan, who died in the year 1153. The third was Walter,
who died in the year 1177. The fourth was Allan, who
died in the year 1204. The fifth was Walter, who died in
the year 1241. The sixth was Alexander, who died in the
year 1283. His second son was John, who married Mar-
garet de Bonkyll, and was then styled " Sir John Steuart
of Bonkyll." One of the signatures to a communication

58 HISTORICAL SKETCHES OF THE

sent from the Barons of Scotland to Edward 1. in 1290, is,
11 Alisaundre de Bonkyll." Sir John was slain at the battle
of Falkirk, in the same engagement in which Sir John the
Graham fell, 22d July, 1298. Both were interred in the
burial-ground of Falkirk. The tomb-stone over the grave
of the latter has been repeatedly renewed, but the stone over
that of the former seems to be the original one, from its
highly antique configuration. When the present church at
Falkirk was rebuilt in the year 1811, the inscription on the
stone over the grave of Sir John Steuart, having been very
much effaced by time, was renewed, by simply cutting the
letters deeper into the body of the stone. It is as follows : —
Here Lies

A

Scottish

Hero

Sir

John

Steuart

Who Was

Killed

At the

Battle

Of

Falkirk

22 July

1298.

t

Sir John Steuart, by his marriage with the heiress cf
Bonkyll, became the father of several sons ; who, in their

PARISH OF CAMBUSNETHAN. 59

turn became the founders of the illustrious houses of Dreg-
horn, Angus, Galloway, Atholl, Traquair, and Buchan. His
sixth son was Sir Robert Steuart of Daldowie, in Clydesdale,
the founder of the house of Allanton. Sir Robert had
extensive possessions around. Rutherglen, and also in the
county of Renfrew. He fought at the battle of Bannock-
burn, in the year 1314, under the banner of his kinsman,
the Lord High Steward of Scotland. He died in the year
1330. He was succeeded by his son Allan, who married a
daughter of Douglas of Douglas, commonly known in Scot-
tish history by the name of u the Black Douglas. '' He was
bred to arms, and seems to have earned the honours which
continue to be emblazoned on the escutcheon of his descend-
ants. In consequence of having displayed great bravery in
heading a party which stormed the castle of Alnwick, in
Northumberland, he was sirnamed " Alnwickster." In
the year 1385, Richard II. invaded Scotland with a very
large army. Allan Steuart of Daldowie, though then
upwards of sixty years of age, impelled by his patriotism,
collected a large body of horsemen in the districts in
Lanarkshire and Renfrewshire, in which his possessions
and influence chiefly lay. On his way to join the general
body of the Scottish army he passed through Cambusnethan,
where he encountered an advanced party of the English
army, at a part of the moor of M'Morren, now called Morn-
ingside. The conflict was a severe one, but the party
commanded by Allan Steuart was victorious. Allan,
however, was slain. His body was buried in the chapel of
Beuskiag, in the vicinity of Morningside, — a religious house
dependant on the Abbey of Aberbi othic, which house gave
a name to the district — "the Chapel" — a name which it

60 HISTORICAL SKETCHES OF THE

'

continues to bear. Several years ago, when drains were
being cut, for agricultural improvement, on the marshy-
portion of the scene of engagement, swords, spears, and
helmets were found. Some of these memorials of the con-
flict are, at the present day, carefully preserved in the
mansion-house of Allanton. The battle gave names to
places in its immediate vicinity, by which names they con-
tinue to be known. One of them, " Cathburn," signifies
the battle burn. " Cathkers," near Allanton house, signifies
the field eastward of the battle. The whole district was
then called "Alcathmuir," signifying the muir of Allarfs
battle; and the stream which waters its southern and west-
ern boundary was called " Alcath water," signifying the
water of Allan's battle. This stream has long been vulgarly
called u Aughter water."

About forty-five years ago, the late Sir Henry Steuart of
Allanton, with the view of honouring the memory of his
heroic ancestor, erected a fountain, near the mansion-house,
on which is the following inscription : —

D. M.

Allani Stevart de Allanton.

Et Daldvi. Equitis. Banneretti.

Viri. Egregii. Armis. Agerrimi.

Ejusdem. qui. insigni. Pugna.

Apud. Morningside. Clarus. Factus.

Fons. Sacer,

V. S. L. A. Faciund. C. An. 1813. H. S.
XI. Gradus, Distans. Hie. A. Duce. Illo. Fortissimo.

The hero of Morningside was accompanied by his son —

PARISH OF CAMBUSNETHAN. 6l

Allan also by name — who, after performing the funeral
obsequies over the remains of his parent in the chapel of
Beuskiag, proceeded with his troop to join the main body
of the army in repelling the invader. On his return home,
King Robert II., who was then residing at Lochmaben
castle, in acknowledgement of his patriotism and bravery,
conferred on him the honour of Knight Banneret; being
knighted under the royal standard, which was then regarded
as the highest military honour which could be received. And
farther, in acknowledgement of the bravery of his parent,
who was slain in the engagement at Morningside, he was
permitted to bear upon his escutcheon the lion-passant of
England, quartered with a broken spear, surmounted by a
helmet, with the Scottish lion for supporters — which are
the armorial bearings of the Steuarts of Allanton to this
day. The crest is a hand issuing from a coronet, grasping a
Scotch thistle, with the motto, " Juvat aspera fortes," and
under the shield, the motto is, " Virtutis in bello premium.'

Sir Allan appears to have gone to reside in France during
the time Charles VI. was Dauphin, and to have served under
that prince. On returning to Scotland, about the year 1421,
he obtained from the Abbot of Aberbrothic, under a favour-
able tenure, lands, to a considerable extent, in the moor of
M'Morren. These lands he thought proper to call "Allan-
ton, " and from that time he was styled " Sir Allan Steuart,
of Daldowie and Allanton." He had a partiality for his
newly-acquired property at Allanton, and came to reside on
ic. When Baron Hay of Yester became military vassal to
the Abbot for the whole of the extensive district of M'Mor-
ren's moor, Sir Allan held his lands, by a similar tenure,

62 HISTORICAL SKETCHES OF THE

from that nobleman. The original grant of the lands from
the Abbot was in existence at the commencement of last
century, when, unfortunately, it and other valuable docu
ments were destroyed by fire.

Sir Allan married a French lady while resident in Paris,
and his eldest son, James, having been born in that city
was usually sirnamed, u of Paris.'" His fathers had been
men of war ; but he was a man who loved peace and re
tirement, and greatly improved his Allanton estate. He
was succeeded by his son James, who, on account of his
taste for literature, was sirnamed " the Antiquary." He
commenced a manuscript narrative of the house of his
fathers, bringing it down to his own day. This narrative
has been continued by several of his descendants, from time
to time, and still exists among the family papers. " The
Antiquary" died in the year 1489. He was succeeded by
his second son, Allan. This Allan had two sons — Gavin and
Adam. To the elder he gave the lands of Daldowie, and
to the younger the lands of Allanton. Gavin married a
daughter of James Lockhart of Lee, by whom he had two
sons : viz., James, who became heir to both his father and
uncle ; and Allan, who obtained the lands of Garbathill.
Gavin Steuart died in the year 1557. Allan was immedi-
ately succeeded by his son Adam, who became Adam Steuart
of Allanton. He also married into the Lee family. In the
year 1536, he passed into England on some mission of a
public or private nature, as appears from a record in the
Kegister office, of a safe conduct granted to him and six
persons who accompanied him. He died without issue in
the year 1574.

PAEISH OF CAMBUSNETHAN. 63

During the life-time of Adam Steuart, the principles of
the Reformation had gained many friends in Scotland. One
of the most active agents in the diffusion of these principles,
especially over the west of Scotland, was the eminent min-
ister of the gospel, George Wish art, who suffered martyrdom
at St. Andrews, in the year 1546, at the instigation of
Cardinal Beaton. Wishart was the intimate friend of
Adam Steuart, and occasionally found not only a home,
but a hiding-place from his persecutors, in the tower of
Allanton. There was a small secret apartment in the old
tower, formed out of the thickest part of the wall. This
was Wishart's hiding-place, and that of others who were in
peril for their religious principles. When Wishart, or any
other of the persecuted party, sought refuge at Allanton, it
was so arranged that he arrived during the night; and
that his being there should be concealed, even from the
servants. It was necessary, however, that one person
should be in the secret, so as the better to aid the family in
the successful concealment of their friends. The confidant
on this occasion was a worthy tailor, whose professional
services were always in requisition when the secret chamber
required to be occupied. This chamber was entered by a
low door, against which the tailor placed his back when
plying his needle. He was a most diligent workman — early
and late — not even taking a stroll during meal hours. His
food was carried to him while prosecuting his craft. It was
sent from the family table ; and the servants had many a
laugh among themselves, and cracked their jokes over the
voracious appetite of the tailor, as he was understood by
them to consume as much food at one meal as might serve
two persons. They required to be kept ignorant that
another shared with him, in his repasts.

G4 HISTORICAL SKETCHES OF THE

James Steuart of Allanton, who was bora in the year
1537, succeeded to his uncle and father in the estates of
Allanton and Daldowie. By a precept of James, Earl of
Arran, dated at the palace of Linlithgow in August, 1679,
he is designed great-grandson of David Tait of Earnock, in
which lands he was then infeft. In the year 1598, a charter
passed the Great Seal in his favour, and that of his son
James, of the lands of Daldowie. He is understood to have
been an intimate friend of John Knox ; to have admired
his character ; and zealously to have promoted the cause of
the Eeformation in Scotland. It is very likely that Knox
became the occasion of introducing him to the Earl of Argyle
and Kegent Moray: In the family papers he is styled
James " of Langside," from his having been in the engage-
ment at Langside, in which Queen Mary was finally defeated.
During the earlier part of that engagement the Queen's forces
were victorious ; and having dispersed the King's cavalry?
were proceeding to throw the foot likewise into confusion,
who were drawn up on Langside hill. James Steuart on
that occasion commanded a troop of horse, and on perceiv-
ing the movement of the vanguard of the Queens army,
vigorously repulsed them before they had reached the sum-
mit of the hill ; and, in so doing, turned the tide of battle,
and greatly contributed to the victory which was that day
achieved. Lords Hamilton and Seton were on the Queen's
side, and were so enraged at Steuart of Allanton, on account
of the share which he had in the defeat of the Queen, that
they actually threatened to pull down his house about his
ears. He returned to Allanton to enjoy repose, and improve
his estate. About a dozen of very fine old ash trees, in
front of the present mansion-house at Allanton, were planted
by him, after the battle of Langside, in the year 1563.

PARISH OF CAMBUSNETHAN. 65

James " of Langside " had two sons, the elder of whom
predeceased his father, but left issue. Grief, at the loss of
his son, so preyed upon him, that he died in the year 1608,
and was succeeded by his grandson, Sir Walter, who was
born in the year 1606. Sir Walter's younger brother,
James, became the first Sir James Steuart of Coltness.
During Sir Walter's minority, the lands of Daldowie,
which had been in the possession of his ancestors for more
than three hundred years, were sold, to clear off encum-
brances. In the year 1653, he purchased for his brother
the lands of Coltness, from Hamilton of Udstom He was
married to the sister of the first Lord Belhaven, and had
a large family. The heir to the estate, a very promising
young man, was at the battle of Dunbar, under General
Leslie, in the year 1650, when Cromwell gained his signal
victory. The fatigues of that campaign overpowered young
Steuart, and he sank under them.

When Cromwell, during that campaign, was returning
from Glasgow to Edinburgh, he passed through Cambus-
nethan, and paid a visit to Allanton house. Sir Walter
thought fit to keep out of the way, but his lady remained,
and shewed Cromwell great hospitality. Before partaking
of the refreshments set before him, he offered up a prayer,
with such fervency as greatly to impress the lady of Allanton
with a sense of the Protector's piety. A delicate boy re-
mained at home with his mother, on the occasion. He was
particularly attracted by the hilt of Cromwell's sword, and
ventured to examine it. On perceiving this, Cromwell clap-
ped him on the head, and called him u my little captain."
From that day he was called "Captain" Steuart. Sir

E

66 HISTORICAL SKETCHES OF THE

Walter died in the year 1672. He was the person who
gave so much trouble to the proprietor of Cam'nethan, when
about to bury his child " in the choir" of the old kirk — who
succeeded in having a new church erected at Greenhead,
and who claimed, and obtained, the front seat of the aisle
gallery.

He was succeeded by his eldest surviving son, William,
who was born in the year 1640. William married his
cousin, daughter of Sir James Steuart of Coltness. In con-
sequence of his connexion with the Coltness family, he
suffered severely during the persecuting period, as will be
fully noticed in its proper place. The fines imposed on him
were very heavy, but they were generously remitted by
James II. in the year 1687. The King offered to create
him a baronet ; but not esteeming the title as of great value,
he declined it, esteeming the title of knight banneret, con-
ferred by the hands of Robert II. on his ancestor, as much
more honourable. The baronetcy on this occasion was
conferred on his cousin, Sir Robert Steuart of Allanbank.
He died in the year 1700, and was succeeded by his son,
James, who died in the year 1762. He, again, was succeeded
by his son, James — the sixth of that name in the ancestry —
who married the daughter of Henry Steuart Barclay of
Colernie, in Fife. He was a superior scholar and an eminent
agriculturist; and as enclosing and planting were then
becoming popular in Scotland, he thereby greatly improved
the amenity and value of his estate.

The son and heir of the sixth James Steuart of Allanton
was Henry, who was born on the 20th October, 1759. He

PARISH OP CAMBUSNETHAN. 67

very successfully studied the transplanting of large trees, as
the lawn and pleasure grounds around Allanton house fully
attest. He was a gentlemen of such varied scholarship as
to obtain the honorary degree of Doctor of Laws, besides
being enrolled a Fellow of the Koyal Society, and of the
Antiquarian Society of Edinburgh. In the year 1787, he
married Lillias, daughter of Hugh Seton, Esquire of Touch,
in the county of Stirling ; and about the same time erected
the present mansion-house, as the old Tower of Allanton
was much decayed. His daughter, Elisabeth-Margaret, his
sole surviving child, became hi3 heiress. In the year 1812,
she married Reginald Macdonald, Esquire of Staffa, by whom
she had three sons and two daughters. Her father was
created a Baronet in May, 1814, with remainder to his son-
in-law, Reginald Macdonald, Esquire, who, on the decease
of Sir Henry, became second Baronet. He died in the year
1838, and was succeeded by his eldest son, Sir Henry- James
Seton-Steuart, the present Baronet, who, in the year 1852,
married Elisabeth, eldest daughter of Robert Montgomery,
Esquire, younger son of Sir James Montgomery, Baronet of
Stanhope.

In the year 1835, Elisabeth-Margaret, the only surviving
child of the first Sir Henry, and heiress of Allanton, added the
surname of Seton to her own ; as in that year she suc-
ceeded, as sole heiress, in right of her mother, to the estate
of Touch- Seton in the county of Stirling. She is, conse-
quently, the representative of one of the oldest and most
honourable families in the kingdom. The Setons can trace
their origin to Dougal Seton, who lived in the reign of
Alexander I. of Scotland, in the twelfth century. The

68 HISTORICAL SKETCHES OF THE

Setons have been distinguished in Scotland during the pro
tracted civil conflicts with England. William, the descend-
ant of Dougal, was created Baron de Gordon by Robert III.,
and from him descended Alexander, who was created Mar-
quess of Huntly in the year 1449. The Marquess had a son
who bore his father's name — Alexander — from whom the
Setons of Touch are lineally descended. Archibald, the
late proprietor of Touch, was the ninth in descent from the
first Marquess of Huntly. He was succeeded by his sister,
Barbara, who dying without issue, the property devolved
upon his niece, now Lady Seton-Steuart of Allanton. Her
ladyship is entitled, by her descent, to be styled u Baroness
de Gordon ;" and has succeeded to the office of heritable
armour-bearer to Her Majesty, and squire of the royal body
— a title which has been in the family of Seton. of Touch
for centuries ; there being charters to this effect extant prior
to the year 1488.

PARISH OF CAMBUSNETHAN. 69

Utxxnxts of Coltes.

As a branch of the Allanton family, the Steuarts of Coltness
are entitled to our notice.

By referring to our notices of the Steuarts of Allanton,
it will be observed that James, " of Langside," was suc-
ceeded by his grandson, Walter. Walter had a brother
two years younger than himself — born in the year 1608 —
whose name was James. They were educated at the
grammar school of Lanark. There is a tradition, that, on
returning from a stroll through Cartland Crags, on a Satur-
day afternoon, with their young cousin of Westshield, and
other boys, they were met by a spae-wife. She drew herself
up into an oracular attitude and expression, and, pointing
her skiny fingers towards one of the boys, said : " Ye're to
be the laird o' Allanton." Pointing to another boy, she
said : " Ye're to be the laird o' Westshield." She then
paused, to the disappointment especially of James, the
younger brother of Walter of Allanton. Hovever, from an
anxiety to know T his own fortune, from the lips of one who
had prognosticated good to others, he asked her, "And
what am I to be ?" " You ! my bairn !" she replied, " ye're
to be the laird o' God's blessing, and ye're ain hand winning

70 HISTORICAL SKETCHES OF THE

and ye'll maybe some clay help to gi'e the lairds a lift."
This oracle, like others of its class, came to be talked of
much oftener after its fulfilment than before it ; as James
became a prosperous, wealthy, honourable person. In his
youth he went to Edinburgh, to push his fortune. When
he left Allanton house, probably with limited resources and
prospects, he, nevertheless, carried with him the fear of the
Lord; and there can be no doubt, that the share which he
had of "the true riches" became the foundation of his
subsequent worldly wealth, and worldly honours. His
prosperity must have been rapid and substantial, as in the
year 1630 — when only in his twenty-second year — he
thought fit to enter into the married state. The annalist of
the Sommervilles of Cam'nethan, in alluding to this marriage
connexion, does so in contemptuous terms — as he too fre-
quently does when alluding to the Steuarts. " Her faither,"
says he, " keepit a worsted chop in the Luckenbooths."
The "Luckenbooths" were, at that time, the principal
places of business for the Edinburgh merchants ; and, as
the merchants of that day required to keep a stock of
everything, for their customers, the whole truth about the
"faither's" business is not told, unless it is mentioned that,
besides "worsted," he had an ample supply of "silks and
satins." The young lady to whom James Steuart gave his
hand and heart, was Anne Hope, daughter of Henry Hope,
the brother of Sir Thomas Hope of Craighall, Lord Advocate
of Scotland. The connexion was highly respectable. James
Steuart contracted a second marriage with the only daughter
of David M'Culloch of Goodtrees, near Edinburgh, through
whom he acquired that estate. This was in the year 1646,
and the position, and worth of character which he had by

PARISH OF CAMBUSNETHAN. 71

that time acquired, in public estimation, may be inferred from
the circumstance of his having been provost of Edinburgh
from 1648 till 1660. In 1650, he, along with the Marquess
of Argyle and the Earl of Eglinton, held a conference with
Cromwell on Bruntsfield-links. He was at the same time
Commissary-General of the army which Cromwell had
defeated that year at Dunbar. He took an active part in
the restoration of Charles II., as will be detailed in the next
lecture ; but, in consequence of his Whig principles, and
adherence to the covenants, was not only deprived of his
office of provost, but very heavily fined and subjected to
long imprisonment. The particulars of these sufferings will
also be given in the next lecture. During his provostship
he was knighted ; and, by his influence, the same honour
was conferred on his brother, Walter, of Allanton. The
lands of West Carbarns, or Kirkfield, in Cambusnethan, had
been purchased by him from Sommerville of Cam'nethan, and
his first title was, " Sir James Steuart of Kirkfield." The
Coltness estate, which had also at one time been a portion
of the large barony of Cam'nethan, was then the property
of John Hamilton of Udston. About the year 1653, the
Coltness estate was purchased by Sir James Steuart.

By his marriage with Miss Hope, Sir James had seven
sons and one daughetr, Margaret by name, married to her
cousin, William Steuart of Allanton. His eldest son was
Thomas. His third son became Walter Steuart of West-
burn, in East Lothian, by marriage with the heiress. His
fourth son became Sir James Steuart of Goodtrees. The
fifth and sixth were unmarried. The seventh became Sir
Robert Steuart of Allanbank. Sir James died in the year

72 HISTORICAL SKETCHES OF THE

1(581, in the 73d year of his age, after having borne an
honourable testimony to the truth, and to the principles of
the covenants, on account of which he so severely suffered.

He was succeeded by his eldest son, Thomas, who was
born in 1631, and became the first Baronet in the family,
having been invested with this honour in the year 1693.
He married into the family of Sir John Elliot, and by his
lady had a family of nine sons and three daughters. He
was an eminently pious man, as well as a zealous Presby-
terian. The scoffers of his day nicknamed him u Gospel
Coltness." In consequence of the countenance which he had
given to the covenanters at Bothwell Bridge, by supplying
them with food, he had to avail himself of the hiding-place
in the wall of Allanton house, guarded by the faithful tailor,
whose services happened to be always needed at Allanton
house, when the hiding-place required to be occupied. He
subsequently fled to Holland, as his estates had been confis-
cated and gi' T en to the Earl of Arran, who afterwards became
Duke of Hamilton. He remained in Holland till the year
1687 — the year in which James II. granted indulgence to
the banished to return home ; and, through the kind ser-
vices of William Penn, the distinguished quaker, he obtained
a pardon. In the year 1689, he represented North Berwick
in the convention of estates, and again in the first Parlia-
ment of King William, in 1690. He was the first to propose
the abolition of Episcopacy; and the well-known Act for
regulating the Church of Scotland was framed and proposed
by him. He was knighted by the commissioner on that
occasion, and in 1693 created a Baronet. Soon after this
his estate was restored, and he obtained a grant of £200.

PAKISH OF CAMBUSNETHAN. 73

sterling annually, payable out of the revenues of the Arch-
bishopric of Glasgow, as a compensation for the losses which
he had sustained during his forfeiture. He died in the year
1698.

Sir Thomas was succeeded by his eldest son, Sir David,
who was born in the year 1G56, and married into the family
of Wygateshaw, but had no family. He accompanied his
father to Holland, in his banishment, and was led, in the
year 1685, to join the Earl of Argyle in his unfortunate,
and unsuccessful, descent on Scotland. The Earl was be-
headed at the cross of Edinburgh, and Sir David was
condemned to be executed. He was reprieved, and after-
wards pardoned. As he had no family, he sold the Coltness
estate, in the year 1712, to his uncle, Sir James Steuart of
Goodtrees, Lord Advocate for Scotland. He died in the
year 1723.

Sir David was succeeded in his title by his uncle, Sir
James Steuart of Goodtrees, then the proprietor of Coltness.
The Goodtrees branch, as already mentioned, originated in
the marriage of Walter, third son of the first Sir James,
with the heiress of Goodtrees. The fourth son of this mar-
riage — Sir James — succeeded to the Goodtrees estate. He
was bred to the bar, and became an able lawyer. In the
year 1660, though only twenty- five years of age, he distin-
guished himself by his able defence of his father, then being
prosecuted by the government — a defence which so exas-
perated the heads of the government, that the young advo-
cate had to betake himself to a hiding-place. In the year
1683, he, along with his relative, Sir William Denham of

74 HISTORICAL SKETCHES OF THE

Wcstshield, was condemned, and his estate forfeited. Two
years afterwards, be was sentenced to be executed when-
ever found. He was also an occupant of the hiding-place
at Allanton house, and the faithful tailor did not in his case,
or in any other, betray trust. At one period he found refuge
in London, and maintained himself in rather a singular man-
ner. He advertised to give written opinions on difficult law
cases, at half the usual fee — -five shillings — the usual fee
then being half-a-guinea. His solutions were so profound,
and ingenious, as to obtain him large employment. The
desire to find out this solver of legal difficulties became so
strong, as to oblige him, to prevent discovery, to return to
Scotland. He subsequently went to Holland, and obtained
an introduction to the Prince of Orange. He became Lord
Advocate under William III., and enjoyed the same office
under Queen Anne. By his first marriage he had one son
— James by name — who succeeded him. By his second
marriage, he had two sons, the elder of whom was Henry
Steuart Barclay of Colernie, in Fife, — one of the ancestors
of the present Sir Henry Steuart of Allanton. In the year
1712, he purchased the estate of Coltness from Sir David.
He died in the year 1713.

He was succeeded by his son, Sir James Steuart of
Goodtrees and Coltness, who was born in 1681, and had
married into the family of Sir Hugh Dalrymple of North
Berwick, president of the Court of Session. Sir James was
also bred to the bar, and became as distinguished for his
Whig principles — which had been so honourably maintained
by his ancestors — as by his legal talents. In the year 1705
he was created a Baronet — in 1709 he became Solicitor-

PARISH OF CAMBUSNETHAN. 75

General for Scotland — and in 1713 a representative in Par-
liament for the county of Midlothian. He had three sons,
the youngest of whom succeeded him. He had nine daugh-
ters. The eldest of them was the grandmother of the late
Admiral Sir Philip Durham. The second, married Henry-
David, the Earl of Buchan. The third, married Alexander
Murray of Cringletie. The other daughters died young,
and unmarried. Sir James died in the year 1727.

He was succeeded by his son, Sir James, who was born
in 1713. Like his father and grandfather, he was bred to
the bar ; but surpassed them both in vigour, and variety of
talent. Indeed, but for the part he was led to adopt in
connexion with the Pretender, in the year 1745, there is no
doubt he would have earned the highest honours of the legal
profession in Scotland. Soon after entering on the legal
profession, he went on a tour to the continent. This
brought him into connexion with several of the exiled
Jacobite chiefs. His family had been long attached to the
principles of the Whigs, but he was induced to embrace the
cause of dethroned royalty. When in Rome he was intro-
duced to Prince Charles Steuart ; and the reception was so
courteous, that the youthful Sir James of Coltness was
entirely fascinated by it. He returned to Scotland in 1740,
and in 1743 married Lady Frances Wemyss, eldest daughter
of the Earl of Wemyss. In the year 1745 " Prince Charlie"
was holding levees, and receiving adherents, in Holyrood
house. Lord Elcho, the brother-in-law of Sir James, was
attached to the Prince, and devised a plan of having Sir
James, and the Earl of Buchan, introduced to the Prince.
The terms were, that they were not by that introduction to

76 HISTORICAL SKETCHES OF THE

be regarded as pledged to join his standard. The Prince
declined to receive them, on these terms. The Earl of
Buchan retired, but Sir James instantly offered his services
to the young Chevalier. This led to his being appointed on
an embassy to the court of France, otherwise he might have
been on the fatal field of Culloden, or his head been laid on the
fatal block. Sir James, fortunately, was not attainted; but
the step which he had taken involved him in consequences
which kept him an exile for nearly twenty years. In the
year 1762, when residing at Spa, and during the war with
France, he was suspected of being a spy, in the pay of the
British government. He was seized — treated as a state
prisoner — and confined for sixteen months in the fortress of
Charlemont. On his release, flattering prospects were held
out to him, on condition of his entering the French service.
The reply which he returned to the proposal — though we
had known nothing else of him — enables us to estimate the
man. " Sir, what I have suffered from my own nation, I
merited by my misconduct ; what I have suffered from yours,
was as unjust as it was unwarrantable, and should never
have been inflicted. I would as soon renounce my God, as
I would relinquish my country 1"

The prolonged residence of Sir James on the continent
was occupied in study, and led to the publication of several
works on finance, together with " A Defence of Sir Isaac
Newton's Chronology." At the peace of Paris, in the year
1763, and by the kind entreaties of Lord Barrington, and
Lady Mary Wortley Montague, King George III. was
induced to grant a pardon to Sir James, and allow him to
return home. In 1771, by a deed under the Great Seal,

PAKISH OF CA.MBUSNETHAN. 77

this pardon, and his restoration to the peaceful possession of
his estates were confirmed. The remaining seventeen years
of his life were spent in literary and scientific pursuits. In
the retirement of Coltness he put the finishing hand to his
great work, " An Inquiry into the Principles of Political
Economy," which gained for him the title of " the father of
Political economy in Scotland." It appeared in two quarto
volumes, from the press of the Messrs. Miller and Cadell of
Edinburgh, who gave him £200. for the copyright. It
appeared nine years before Adam Smith published his
u Wealth of Nations." Smith has borrowed largely from
the writings of Sir James, and without acknowledgement ;
and it remains a blemish on Adam Smith's literary charac-
ter, that he should have drawn so much from the sentiments
of a writer of whom he was accustomed to speak disparag-
ingly. Sir James died on the 26th November, 1780, and
was buried in the tomb of his forefathers, at Cambusnethan
old church -yard.

There is an arbour near Coltness house which Sir James
occupied for study, and in which he spent many of his
happiest hours of retirement, both before his exile and after
his return home. On the wall, above the seat, a chrysalis
and two butterflies, emblems of immortality, have been
sculptured in alto-rillevo. Below them, the following in-
scription, on a marble slab, was inserted in the year 1815 : —

THE FAVOURITE SEAT OF

SIR JAMES AND LADY FRANCES STEUART.

Inscribed to their Memory, 1815.

Blest and united by the ties that bind
The generous spirit, and the virtuous mind,

78 HISTORICAL SKETCHES OF THE

to their loved homes the exiles came at last,
Courted this safe retreat, and smiled on perils past.

Here, arm in arm, enjoying and enjoyed,

Musing on life, no moment misemployed,

The pilgrims paused, to hail the happier shore,

Where love is ever young, and virtue weeps no more.

There are other rather interesting and curious associations
connected with this arbour. One of the early and intimate
associates of Sir James was Mr. Alexander Trotter of
Midlothian. Mr. Trotter died in early life ; and on his
death-bed made a promise to Sir James, that, if possible,
he would, after his decease, pay him a visit in the arbour,
which had been so often the scene of their retired devotions
and meditations. He fixed on the hour of noon as the time
for the interview ; and, to prevent mistake, that he would
appear in the dress which he usually wore. Sir James
attached such importance to this promise, that every day
thereafter, and even under the debilities of age, he was
found at mid-day in the arbour, expecting the promised visit.
He always returned home disappointed, but consoled him-
self by believing that we know so little of "the other world,"
as not to be justified, in saying, that Mr. Trotter's promised
visit was one impossible for him to fulfil. This circumstance
became the foundation of a popular ballad, to be obtained
at the beginning of this century, from the budget of any
travelling packman, entitled, " The Laird o' Coul's Ghost/'

Sir James had an only son and child, the late Sir James
Steuart, who was born in the year 1744, and died at Chel-
tenham, on the 5th August, 1839, in the 95th year of his
age, the oldest officer at that time in the British army. He

PARISH OF CAMBUSNETHAN. 7\)

was the last of his illustrious house — a house which, for two
centuries, furnished a series of families distinguished for
learning, patriotism, and piety. They have been an honour
to their country; and the parish of Cambusnethan may feel
proud to enrol them on the list of her worthies.

80 HISTORICAL SKETCHES OF THE

ffilje (fom'uxiljmt Estate.

The changes through which the Cam'nethan Estate has
passed during the last six hundred years have been numer-
ous, and are deserving of being enrolled among the Antiqui-
ties of the parish.

It has already been mentioned that, about the beginning
of the twelfth century, the barony of Cambusnethan belonged
to William Finnemund, and subsequently passed into the
possession of Rudolph de Cler. In the collection of royal
charters made by a late Earl of Haddington, and usually
known as the " Haddington Collection," there is one by
King Robert L, granting the barony of Cambusnethan to
Sir Robert Baird, on a reddendo of ten chalders of wheat,
and ten of barley, payable yearly at Rutherglen. This was
toward the beginning of the thirteenth century. About this
time Walter Murray of Tuliibardine married Margaret le
Baird of Cambusnethan. Sir Robert Baird erected at
Cam'nethan a large square tower, of four stories, which
remained entire till about the year 1661, and up to that
time was called " Baird's Tower." It is probable that the
Baron of Cambusnethan was among the number who swore
fealty to Edward I. at Norham castle ; and as, by having

PARISH OF CAMBUSNETHAN. 81

done so, he must have favoured the interests of Baliol, who
was Edward's nominee to the Scottish crown, rather than
those of Bruce, he must, to some extent, have been a marked
and suspected man by the patriots of Scotland. The Bairds
were, at this time, a distinguished and formidable family.
When Edward III. was preparing to invade Scotland, it is
very likely that the Bairds were committed to rally around
his standard. This at least is certain, that, at a Parliament
held at Perth, in the year 1340, they were declared guilty
of treason to the Scottish crown — their estates were forfeited
to the crown — and themselves put to death. Thus termin-
ated the history of the Bairds of Cambusnethan.

About the year 1345, King David Bruce, better known
m Scottish history as David II., gave a donation of the
barony of Cambusnethan to Sir John Edmonston. The
barony then held blenche of the crown, on condition of the
proprietor being in readiness, when the King passed through
his estate, to present to him a pair of gilded spurs ; and
two gilded spurs are the reddendo by which the barony still
holds of the crown. Sir John Edmonston had an only
daughter, who was heiress to the barony. In October,
1372, John, eldest son of the then Baron of Carnwath,
having formed the acquaintanceship of the heiress of Cam-
busnethan, married her. He became the sixth Baron of
Linton, in Roxburghshire ; the third Baron of Carnwath ;
and the first Baron of Cambusnethan, of the Sommerville
line. At this period, the barony of Cambusnethan was so
very extensive as to include almost the whole of the parfsh
of Cambusnethan, quoad civilia. The disponing of sundry
portions of this once large estate piece- meal, till, after the

82 HISTORICAL SKETCHES OF THE

lapse of 264 years, it entirely passed out of the hands of
the Sonimervilles, forms a somewhat tedious story. Space
can be afforded for a notice of only a few particulars. In
the year 1427, Sir William Hay of Yester married a daugh-
ter of the Baron of Cambusnethan, and through her obtained
lands situated in a central district of the parish. Sir Robert
Logan of Restalrig married another daughter, and through
her obtained the lands of Heatheryhill and Fimmington.
The lands of " Fimmington" embrace the site of the original
town of Wishaw, and may properly be described as situated
on the north-east side of Main Street, as far up as the
property of the Reformed Presbyterian Congregation ; and
on the south-west side of said street, from the Glasgow road
upwards toward the cross ; and the lands westward, from
the cross till bounded by Beltonfoot Street. The lands of
Fimmington were afterwards resigned by him in favour of
Sir John of Quothquan. , Soon after this, the Baron of
Cambusnethan disponed the lands of Coltness to Logan of
Restalrig, and by Logan they were subsequently disponed
to Hamilton of Udston.

In April, 1520, the Baron of Cambusnethan forfeited his
lands and title. At that time the provostship of Edinburgh
was deemed an object worth contending for, and enjoying,
even by the nobles of Scotland. The Earls of Angus and
of Arran were, in the year above mentioned, competitors
for the civic honours of the metropolis. The Earl of Arran
was successful. The Baron of Cambusnethan had joined
the party in favour of the Earl of Angus, and felt so incensed
by defeat, as actually to assault the Earl of Arran on the
High Street of Edinburgh, and forcibly drive him and his

PARISH OF CAMBUSNETHAN. 83

friends from the city, and for a time to retain possession of
it. This daring outrage was the occasion of his forfeiture,
and banishment. On the 19th November, 1524, James V.,
by Act of Parliament, gave the barony of Cambusnethan,
with the tower and fortalice, to James Hamilton of Fyneart.
Hamilton of Fyneart belonged to the Douglas family, and
was an extensive proprietor in Clydesdale. He erected
Craignethan Castle. About twenty years afterwards, Som-
merville was restored to his title and estates.

In briefly noticing how the large estate of Cambusnethan
gradually passed away from the Sommervilles, it may be
mentioned, that the lands of Crindledyke and Branchelburn
were disponed to the laird of Lauchop — the lands of Green-
head to Koberton of Earnock — the lands of Wishaw, Stane,
and Watstein, to Hamilton of Udston — the lands of Mur-
rays and Muiredge to Matthew Steuart — the Overtown of
Cam'nethan to Sir John Hamilton of Biel — the Nethermains
of Cam'nethan, Garrion-mill, Coltness-mili and town, to
Steuart of Coltness — the Overmains of Cam'nethan, Nether-
ton, and the lands of Green, to Patrick Hamilton, bailie in
Hamilton : and, in 1649, so very impoverished had the
Baron of Cam'nethan become, that he sold the manor-house
and adjoining lands — the only portion of the estate which
he had managed to retain— to his relative, Sommerville of
Drum. It was Sommerville of Drum who had the quarrel
with Allanton, and the Presbytery of Hamilton, about his
right to bury " in the choir," and who resisted, as long as
he could, the erection of a new church on the lands of
Greenhead. The last Baron of Cam'nethan, of the Som-
merville line, died at Edinburgh in 1659, and was buried in

84 HISTORICAL SKETCHES OF THE

Greyfriar's church-yard, little respected by his relatives, a3
he had squandered his estate, and had nothing to leave to
them. Sommerville of Drum seems to have kept the estate
only twelve years, as he disponed it, in the year 1661, to
Sir John Harper, who was then Sheriff-depute of the county.
Baird's tower, and the buildings which the earlier Barons
Sommerville had clustered around it, were so seriously
injured, by the decaying hand of time, when Sir John
Harper bought the estate, that he found it necessary to take
them entirely down, and on their site to erect a stately
mansion, which, after standing for about 160 years, was
unfortunately burned down. Upon the death of Sir John
Harper, the property came into the possession of Lockhart
of Castlehill, with whose descendants it has since continued.

When Robert Bruce was dying, in the year 1329, he
charged his faithful servant, Sir James Douglas, that, as
soon as he was dead, he should take his heart out of his
body and cause it to be embalmed, and, taking out of the
royal treasure what was needful for the due execution of the
royal will, proceed with a becoming retinue to Palestine,
and deposit the heart in the holy sepulchre of our Saviour,
at Jerusalem, Sir James executed the preliminary instruc-
tions of his royal master. He set sail for Palestine, with a
princely retinue. On sailing along the coast of Spain, he
landed at Seville ; and, learning that the King of Spain
was then at war with the Moors, he seems to have forgotten
the object of his mission, as he joined the Spanish army, to
fight against the infidels. He had the embalmed heart of
Bruce locked to his body. In one of the engagements with
the Moors he was wounded, and many of the brave Scottish

PARISH OF CAMBUSNETHAN. 85

knights who accompanied him were slain. On discovering
that he had been wounded, he took from his neck the sacred
charge entrusted to him, and throwing the silver casket
before him on the battle field, exclaimed : " Onward, thou
noble heart, as thou ever wert wont to do. Douglas shall
follow thee, or die !" He then turned to rescue Sir William
Saint Clair of Roslin, whom he saw in jeopardy ; but while
attempting it, he fell under the sabres of his enemies. Next
day, the silver casket containing the heart of Bruce, and the
body of Douglas, were found on the field ; and the surviving
Scottish knights, having claimed both, immediately consulted
how they should then act. They resolved to desist from
the mission to Palestine, as their leader had fallen, and the
vow he had taken to the dying King could not now be
fulfilled ; and, to return to Scotland. They brought the
heart, and the body of "the Good Sir James" with them.
The heart was ultimately deposited near the altar of the
Abbey of Melrose, and the body of Sir James in the tomb
of his fathers at Douglas.

One of the Scottish knights who accompanied Sir James
Douglas on his mission to Palestine, was Sir Simon Locard
of Lee — a name of early distinction, and of an antiquity
which carries us back to the reign of David I. Sir Simon
was spared to return to Scotland with the heart of Bruce,
and from this circumstance was induced to change his
name from Locard to Lockheart — to assume a heart within
a lock as part of his armorial bearings, and the following
motto : " Corda serrata pando." Following the descent
from Sir Simon, we come to Sir Allan Lockhart, who was
slain in the battle of Pinkie, in the year 1547, fighting for

SG HISTORICAL SKETCHES OF THE

Queen Mary. Sir Allan's grandson, James, was knighted
by James VI. ; whose son, Sir James, became a Lord of
the Court of Session, and, in the reign of Charles I., Lord-
Justice-Clerk, under the title of Lord Lee. Lord Lee had
several sons. The third was Sir John Lockhart of Castle-
hill, who, by Charles II., was appointed a Senator of the
College of Justice, and a Lord of Justiciary. Sir John
Lockhart of Castlehill had an only daughter, who was his
heiress. She married Sir John Sinclair, Baronet of Steven-
son, and had issue. The second son of this marriage, John
Sinclair, succeeded to the Castlehill title and estates, on
which account he assumed the surname of Lockhart. He
was the progenitor of the present proprietor of Cam'nethan
estate, James Sinclair Lockhart, Esquire of Castlehill.

PARISH OF CAMBUSNETHAN. 87

pjemoir of % gdjjata BzmQt.

We shall conclude our Sketches of the Antiquities of the
parish with a Memoir of the Belhaven Peerage.

When James VI. succeeded to the crown of England, his
eldest son, Henry, then in his ninth year, became Prince of
Wales. Sir Robert Douglas of Spot, in the county of
Haddington, became page of honour to the Prince, and
afterwards Master of the Horse. On the death of the
Prince of Wales, he became one of the Lords of the Koyal
bed-chamber — an office which was continued to him by
Charles I. Sir James Balfour, Lord Lyon, King-at-Arms
under Charles I., mentions in his "Annals of Scotland,"
that " Charles I., to honour his coronation, creatted 1 Mar-
quesse, 10 Earles, 2 Viscounts, and 8 Lordes, on the 17
Junij, 1633." One of the Viscounts was u Sir Robert
Douglas of Spote, knight, creatted Viscount Belheauen,
Lord Douglas of Spote." Balfour has the following notice
of the death of Viscount Belhaven, in the year 1639 : —
" Obitts, this zeire, of eminent personages, wer, first, in the
mounthe of Januarij, 1639, Robert Douglas, Wiscount
Belheauen, sometyme Master of the Horses to Henry, Prince
of Wales, quho departed this lyffe at his dwelling-house,

88 HISTORICAL SKETCHES OF THE

neire Glasgow, the 5 day of this mounthe, to quhosse mem-
orey his heires lies erected a staitly monument of whyte
marble in the Abey Churche of Holyrudhouse." The house
which belonged to Viscount Belhaven, and in which he
died, was in Gorbals, Glasgow. It still exists ; a fine old
baronial mansion, on the south-east side of Main Street.
Viscount Belhaven left no issue, and the title became
extinct.

We shall now give a sketch of the present peerage, and
of the ancestry of the present Lord Belhaven. In tracing
back the ancestry, we must go as far as the commencement
of the fourteenth century. About the year 1300, King
Robert created the first Lord Cadzow, the founder of the
house of Hamilton. On the 28th June, 1445, the sixth
Lord Cadzow was created Lord Hamilton. The second
Lord Hamilton was created Earl of Arran, on the 10th
August, 1503. A brother of the first Earl of Arran was
Sir John Hamilton of Broomhill, who married the heiress of
Hamilton of Udston. He died about the year 1500. The
offspring of this marriage was three sons. The eldest son
became John Hamilton of Coltness — the second, by his
marriage with the heiress of Barncleuth, became Sir James
Hamilton of Barncleuth — and the third son became William
Hamilton of Wishaw. It was the Barncleuth branch which
furnished the first Lord Belhaven, who was Sir John
Hamilton of Biel, and was the great-grandson of Sir John
Hamilton of Broomhill, the brother of the first Earl of
Arran. The Hamilton family were warmly attached to the
person and cause of Charles I. When the monarch had
openly proclaimed war against his English Parliament, he

PARISH OF CAMBUSNETHAN. 89

had ardent supporters in his Scottish subjects. On one
occasion, a large body of horse were collected in Scotland,
and were placed under the command of Sir John Hamilton.
They marched towards England. They went thither by
way of Berwick. On approaching the Scotch gate of that
old, and still walled border town, the advanced guard of the
troop halted. Sir John instantly rode up, and enquired
into the occasion of their having halted. On being informed
that they had hesitated to enter the gate, till they had
consulted, whether they should first ask permission from
the Governor of the town, and obtain it, Sir John at once
said, " Ride through," and the order was obeyed. Sir John
displayed great valour in battle, as well as devotedness to
his King ; and, in acknowledgement of both, the Sovereign
created him Lord Belhaven and Stenton, on the 15th
December, 1647. In token of his bravery, he was empow-
ered to carry a sword on his escutcheon, and to have horses
for his supporters. The crest is a horse's head, couped
and bridled, with the motto, " Ride through ;" which motto
was selected, because these were the words which he had
uttered when ordering his troop to enter the gate of Ber-
wick — words which were by the monarch deemed indicative
of the prompt decision to which Lord Belhaven came, on
the occasion referred to.

The first Lord Belhaven married Margaret, daughter of
James, Marquess of Hamilton, and had a family of three
daughters. He resided at Barncleuth, and constructed the
beautiful terraced gardens there, which to this day attract
so many visitors. He had a taste for gardening, and very
much improved it by his occasional visits to Holland, which

90 HISTORICAL SKETCHES OF THE

I

occasioned the introduction of the Dutch style, the promi-
nent feature of the gardens to the present day. During the
Commonwealth, when heavy fines were imposed on all who
had defended the cause of Charles L, Lord Belhaven was
among the number on whom the impost fell very heavily.
To avoid payment, he determined to go out of the way for
a time. His intention was to live retired in England;
concluding that concealment might be better effected there,
than in Scotland. Having communicated his designs to
Lady Belhaven, who was to remain at Barncleuth, he took
with him one servant, and travelled towards England, by
way of the Solway sands. He had frequently done so on
his visits to England, and was acquainted with the safe line
of that rather hazardous passage. On reaching the sands,
he thought fit to dismiss his servant, instructing him to
return home, with a letter to Lady Belhaven. On reaching
home, the servant reported that, on crossing the Solway
sands, his master, horse and all, disappeared. Sir James
Balfour, under date 3d July, 1652, reports the story in the
following terms : " Sir John Hamiltone, Lord Beilheauen,
quho had married the daughter of James, 2d Marques of
Hamilton, and widow of Lord Sal ton, miserablie perished
in the sinking sands of Solway, going towardes England,
having mistaken the safe way, and trusting too much to
himselve without a gyde. The man was a werey gallant
gentleman, and much regretted by all who knew him." The
present Lord Belhaven mentioned to the author, that Sir
Walter Scott informed him, that the story, as recorded by
Balfour, was fixed on as the foundation of a similar story
which has been introduced into the "Bride of Lammermoor,"
accounting for the disappearance of the Master of Eavens-

PARISH OF CAMBUSNETHAN. 9l

wood. Lord Belhaven did not perish in the Solway sands.
He had crossed these sands too often to be mistaken as to
the line of safe footing, and was characterized for caution.
He found his way up to London, and thence down to Rich-
mond, where he considered he would have better opportun-
ities of wearing his disguise. Attracted by the sylvan
scenery of Richmond park, and with the view of gratifying
his favourite tastes incognito, he engaged himself to be a
gardener. He had not forgotten that his royal master had,
at one time, to assume the disguise of a wood-cutter, and, at
another, that of a travelling servant. The intelligence
manifested by the Scotch gardener soon won towards him
the respect of his employers. He managed to get himself
repeatedly appointed to go over to Holland, to obtain choice
seeds and bulbous roots. His real motive, on occasion of
these visits, was to have an opportunity of meeting with
the exiled Scottish nobility, and especially with Charles II.,
who was also then an exile in Holland. Cromwell died in
the year 1658 ; and his son, Richard, who succeeded him in
the Protectorate, having held office for little more than
seven months, abdicated, and retired into private life. In
the year 1660, Charles was restored to the throne of his
fathers ; and Lord Belhaven, with others, returned home to
enjoy their estates in peace.

It has been already mentioned that Lord Belhaven's
family consisted of three daughters. In the year 1675,
feeling himself to be an old man, and having no male issue,
he thought proper to resign the honours of the peerage into
the hands of the sovereign. Charles II. declined receiving
them ; and, on the other hand, granted a fresh patent, under

92 HISTORICAL SKETCHES OF THE

date 15th December, 1675, continuing the peerage to Lord
Belhaven for life, and, upon his decease, granting its honours
to the husband of one of his grand-daughters. Lord Bel-
haven died in the year 1679, and, according to the limitation
in the charter of 1675, the title devolved upon the eldest
son of Lord Pressmennan, one of the Senators of the College
of Justice, who became the second Lord Belhaven.

Sir John Hamilton of Biel, who became the second Lord
Belhaven, was a Lord of the Treasury in 1704, and took a
decided stand in opposing the Union of the crowns in 1706.
His history was a stirring one, and was somewhat melan-
choly. He had been Lord Belhaven only two years, when
the oath was framed which was called "the Test ;*' which
was obviously designed to crush the spirit, and extinguish
the cause, of the covenanting party in Scotland. This oath
has been characterized by Wodrow as " the most complex
and self- contradictory of oaths — without a parallel among
the oaths forced upon a protesting nation." Many of the
best men among the Scottish nobles were opposed to it.
The Earl of Argyle having refused to take it, without explan-
ations, was accused of treason, and had to pay the penalty
of this alleged crime by laying his head on the block.
During the discussions which " the test " occasioned in the
Scottish Parliament, Lord Belhaven expressed himself to
the following effect, that " in it he saw a way for securing
religion among the subjects themselves, but he did not see
his way for securing our religion, against a Popish and
fanatical successor to the crown." For these expressions he
was at once committed a prisoner to the castle of Edinburgh,
and accused of treason. In his defence, he pled the warmth

PARISH OF CAMBUSNETHAN. 93

of liis national feelings, and admitted that, under their im-
pulse, he may have been led to express himself too strongly
— threw himself on the mercy of the ruling power — was
pardoned — and restored to his seat in Parliament. After
all, he was on the right side, and had only spoken the truth,
as soon came to be too plainly verified. In January, 1689,
he was one of the Scottish nobles who went up to London,
to assist in settling the crown on William and Mary. During
the same year he commanded a troop of horse at the battle
of Killiecrankie — the battle in which the notorious Claver-
house was slain. On the death of William, and the accession
of Anne to the crown, proposals were submitted to unite the
crown of Scotland to that of England. Two- thirds of the
people of Scotland were hostile to the measure ; looking on
it as a surrender of their independence. In the midst of an
animated debate on the proposal, on the floor of the old
Parliament-house of Edinburgh, the patriotism and indig-
nation of Lord Belhaven burst forth. On that occasion he
spoke as follows : —

" Where are the Douglases, the Grahams, the Campbells,
our peers and chieftains, who vindicated by their swords
from the usurpation of the Edwards, the independence of
their country, which their sons are about to forfeit by a
single vote ? I see the English constitution remaining firm ;
the same trading companies, laws, and judicatures ; whilst
ours are either subjected to new regulations, or are annihilated
for ever. And for what? — that we maybe admitted to
the honour of paying their old arrears, and presenting a few
witnesses to attest the new debts, which they may be pleased
to contract ! Good God ! is this an entire surrender ? My
heart bursts with indignation and grief, at the triumph

94 HISTORICAL SKETCHES OF THE

which the English will obtain to-day, over a fierce and war-
like nation, which has struggled to maintain its independence
so long ! But, if England should offer us our own conditions,
never will I consent to the surrender of our sovereignty,
without which, unless the contracting parties remain inde-
pendent, there is no security different from his, who stipulates
for the preservation of his property when he becomes a
slave!"

However much these sentiments may be admired, on
account of the patriotism which they breathe, together with
the eloquence of their appeal to Scottish hearts, the perora-
tion of that impassioned address must be given, for the sake
of the classic taste which Lord Belhaven displayed : —

" I see our ancient mother, Caledonia, like Caesar, sitting
in the midst of our senate, looking mournfully around,
covering herself with her royal garments, and breathing out
her last words, And thou too, my son ! while she attends
the fatal blow from our hands."

For these expressions — creditable alike to the head and
heart of the patriotic Belhaven — he was ordered into cus-
tody. He pled, that his position, and ardour of feeling,
should be accepted as his apology, if he had been guilty of
any crime. The apology was accepted, and he was liberated.
In the spring of 1708 there was an attempt made by the
French to land the Chevalier St. George on the shores of
Scotland. Lord Belhaven was suspected of being in the
plot, and was again made a prisoner. Whether there were
sufficient grounds for his apprehension cannot now be deter-
mined, as the charge never came to a legal proof. He was,
however, carried a prisoner to London ; and being publicly

PARISH OF CAMBUSNETHAN. 95

led along its streets to the Tower — unable to bear up under
the disgrace — his patriotic spirit burst within him. He was
seized with brain fever, and died on the 21st June, 1708.

His eldest son, John, became the third Lord Belhaven.
He was one of the representative Peers of Scotland in the
Parliament of 1715 — the year of the first rebellion — during
which year he was created a Lord of the bed-chamber.
He commanded the East Lothian troop of horse at the
battle of Sheriifmuir, where he displayed great bravery.
In the year 1721, he was appointed Governor of the island
of Barbadoes. On his voyage thither — at midnight, on
the 17th November — the vessel struck on the Stag-rocks,
near the Lizard point. His Lordship, with the whole crew
and passengers, to the number of 240 persons — with the
exception of one individual — perished.

His eldest son, John, became fourth Lord Belhaven. He
was created General of the Mint, and appointed one of the
Trustees for the encouragement of trade and fisheries in
Scotland. He was unmarried, and died at Newcastle on
the 28th August, 1764.

His brother, James, succeeded him, as fifth Lord Bel-
haven. He was entered a member of the Faculty of
Advocates in the year 1728. He was Sheriff-Depute of
Haddington in the year 1747. He also was unmarried.
He died on the 25th January, 1777.

We must now go back, and place on record another
notice of the patriotic John, second Lord Belhaven. Jn the

96 HISTORICAL SKETCHES OF THE

year 1701, lie executed a deed of entail, settling the estates
on the heirs male of his body, and failing them, on the heirs
female, to the exclusion of their husbands. The fifth Lord
Belhaven was unmarried ; and as the whole male descen-
dants of the second Lord's father, Lord Pressmennan, had
entirely failed, the family estates, which were of great value,
devolved upon the nearest female heir, Mrs. Mary Hamilton
Nisbet of Pentcaitland. She was accordingly served heir
to James, fifth Lord Belhaven, on the 3d December, 1783.
She thus became heiress to the Belhaven estates, and we
must now go in search of an heir to the Belhaven peerage.

It will now be necessary to bring to recollection that the
first Lord Belhaven was, on the father's side, descended
from the Hamiltons of Broomhill, and, on the mother's side,
from the Hamiltons of Udston. John Hamilton of TJdston
had three sons. The eldest became John Hamilton of
Coltness — the Coltness estate being then the property of
his father. The second son, by marriage with the heiress
of Barncleuth, became James Hamilton of Barncleuth ; and
the third son became William Hamilton of Wishaw. It
will be proper, further, to bring to recollection that, as the
first Lord Belhaven had no male issue, Charles I. was
pleased to continue the peerage in the person of the husband
of one of his grand-daughters. This grand-daughter repre-
sented the Barncleuth branch, which furnished the third,
fourth, and fifth Lords Belhaven, in the last of whom the
male issue, in the Barncleuth line, failed. According to
the usual course of descent established by the entail law of
Scotland, in the case of their having been three brothers —
as was the case now in dispute — if there should be a failure

PARISH OF CAMBUSNETHAN. 97

of male heirs in the family of the middle brother, then the
male heir of the third brother is entitled to succeed in
preference to the male heir of the oldest brother. The claim
to the peerage, however, was litigated. William Hamilton,
captain in the 44th Regiment of foot, claimed to be lineally
descended from, and heir male of, John Hamilton ofColtness.
Upon this claim he assumed the title of Lord Belhaven, and
voted upon it at the election of Representative Peers, in the
year 1790. This claim and vote were disputed, by the
Attorney- General, on behalf of the male heir of William
Hamilton of Wishaw. On the 5th January, 1793, the
Lords' Committee of Privileges unanimously decided that
the vote given by William Hamilton, in 1790, was a bad
vote — a decision which was confirmed by the House of
Peers. Immediately upon this confirmation having been
declared, W 7 illiam Hamilton of Wishaw, son and heir of the
deceased Robert Hamilton of Wishaw, petitioned the crown
for the dignity and title of Lord Belhaven and Stenton.
The petition was referred to the House of Lords, and, on
having been fully considered, the claim was determined in
his favour, on the 25th April, 1799.

It will now be proper to give a brief sketch of the Wishaw
family.

The founder of. the Hamiltons of Wishaw was William,
youngest son of Hamilton of Udston. He died in the year
1624. He was succeeded by his eldest surviving son,
William, who died, at a very advanced age, in the year
1728. His eldest son having predeceased him, the estate,
in 1726, was inherited by his grand-son, William, who

G

98 HISTORICAL SKETCHES.

married the grand-daughter of John, seventh Earl of Marr,
by whom he had a numerous family. This accounts for the
armorial bearings of the Erskines of Marr being inserted,
with those of the Hamiltons of Wishaw, on the front wall
of Wishaw house. In the year 1756, William Hamilton of
Wishaw was killed by a fall from his horse, returning from
Hamilton, and was succeeded by his second son, who died,
unmarried, in the year 1763. In that year Kobert Hamilton
succeeded his brother. The fifth Lord Belhaven died in
1777, and in that year Robert Hamilton of Wishaw was
entitled to be called the sixth Lord Belhaven. However,
he did not assume the title — it having, as we have seen,
been claimed by a descendant of the Coltness line. He
died at Wishaw, on the 27th March, 1784, and was suc-
ceeded by his eldest son, William, who was born on the
13th January, 1765, and, on his father's decease, was
entitled to be called the seventh Lord Belhaven. He did
not, however, assume it, as the claim to the title was
disputed, and a decision had not yet been given. He
assumed it, however, on the 25th April, 1799, when the
House of Lords determined in his favour. He died on the
29th October, 1814, and was succeeded by his eldest son,
Robert-Montgomery, the present peer, as eighth Lord
Belhaven.

His Lordship was born in the year 1793. In the year
1831, he was created a British Peer, under, the title of Baron
Hamilton of Wishaw. — And long may his Lordship live to
enjoy the honours of the peerage, and share in the best
wishes of the inhabitants of the Burgh of Wishaw.

THE SHAEE

WHICH THE

PARISH OF CAMBUSN ETHAN

HAD IN THE

TEOUBLES AND SUFFEKINGS

OF THE

PERSECUTING PERIOD.

%\t |3mmtthtg ^txxob.

Several years ago, a friend of the author's, on a tour
through the south of Ireland, found it necessary on one
occasion to travel all night, so as to fulfil an engagement
next day. The only conveyance was by one of Bianconi's
cars. A great portion of the way lay along a bleak, deso-
late heath. About midnight the car stopped, and a fierce-
looking person took a seat upon it. In his appearance
there was nothing to encourage conversation, but he seemed
determined to break silence by asking his fellow-traveller,
11 Aren't you afraid, Sir, to travel over this country at
this hour of the night ?" " Not in the slightest," was the
reply. Silence was for a time continued. The question,
certainly, was not one very inviting to conversation, especi-
ally when the outward appearance of the proposer of it, and
the circumstances under which it was put, were taken into
account. After a brief interval, the question was repeated,
Jn tones fully sterner than before. There was enough to
excite fear, but it was the best policy not to manifest it.
It is a characteristic of a Scotchman to answer one question
by proposing another. u What should I be afraid of?"
was the reply, on the question being repeated. " You're a
Scotchman, I perceive, and may be none the worse for a

102 HISTORICAL SKETCHES OP THE

bit of advice. In Ireland, Sir, don't take a man's farm over
his head, and don't meddle with his religion, and nobody-
will touch a hair of your head." The second part of the
advice will be found to have a practical value in other
countries, as much so as in Ireland. History furnishes
ample proof, that men who value their religious privileges
will resist an attack on them, probably with as much firm-
ness as any attack made on their principles. We need not go
for an illustration beyond what has been called the Cove-
nanting Period, in the history of our own country.

We now enter on the enquiry, How far the Parish
of Cambusnethan had a share in the Troubles and I
Sufferings of the Persecuting Period?

Before entering on the minuter, and more deeply inter-
esting details, it will be proper to make a few preliminary
statements. This is the more necessary, that, from the
outset, we may have distinctly before us the circumstances
which became the occasion of the Troubles and Sufferings
of that eventual period.

- - Popery — as the national form of religion — was abolished
in Scotland, by a vote of Parliament, in the year 1560.
The first thing, of any importance, which the Parliament
proceeded to, on passing this vote, was to draw up and
sanction " A Confession of Faith." The next thing was, to
agree upon a form of government by which the church
should henceforth be regulated. The Parliament having
taken into consideration that the Prelacy of the English
church was, in its rule, too much akin to the Papal model —

PARISH OF CAMBUSNETHAN. 103

that the voice of the people was not duly recognised by
Prelacy — and that the government of the church was too
delusively in the hands of bishops and dignitaries — resolved
to adopt the Presbyterian form of government, because it
secured the rights and liberties of the people, and placed all
thi ministers of the gospel upon the same level. King
Janes VI. had, from infancy, been brought up under Pres-
bjterian rule. He was a very vain man — vain of his theo-
logical attainments — fond of flattery — and, On succeeding
tothe English crown, was completely carried away from his
edy ecclesiastical principles, by the flattery of the bishops,
ad the external splendour of the English church service.
I one of his addresses to the General Assembly, before
laving Scotland, he characterized the English service as
4 an ill mumbled mass," and gave his solemn pledge to
maintain the principles and government of the Scottish
liurch. He had sworn and subscribed " The National
Covenant ;" but had not been seven months on the throne
of England, when he had made up his mind to bring the
Scottish church to conform to the Prelacy of England. The
Puritans of England had expected a removal of their griev-
ances, as James had been known to express his preferences
for Presbyterianism ; but they were doomed to disappoint-
ment. They learned " not to put their trust in princes."
At the Hampton Court conference, they proposed that
meetings of the clergy be convened to confer on religious
subjects ; but James rejected the proposal with rudeness.
u If you aim at a Scottish Presbytery," said he, "it agrees
as well with monarchy as God and the devil. Then Jack
and Tom, and Will and Dick, shall meet, and at their
pleasure censure me and my council. Stay, I pray you, for

104 HISTORICAL SKETCHES OF THE

one seven years before you demand it ; and then, if you find
me grown pursy and fat, I may perhaps hearken unto you,
for that government will keep me in breath, and give ne
work enough. 1 " This was plain speaking. The Fnritais
could not have mistaken its meaning. James was preparhg
to introduce Prelacy into Scotland, and thereby to oxst
Presbyterianism from his fatherland.

Charles L followed in the footsteps of his father, >y
pressing his Prelatic tendencies on his Scottish subjecs.
He did this so strongly, and unwisely, as to lead to an opn
rupture. The throwing of Jenny Geddes' stool at the he;d
of the Dean of Edinburgh, when he was, for the first tim,
conducting the worship according to the English liturg;,
was " the blow which began the battle" between Charles i
and his Scottish subjects. It marked the commencemen
of one of the most remarkable social revolutions through
which this or any other nation has passed. While events
were in progress which consummated this Revolution,
Charles lost his head ; but Scotland kept her covenant.

During the reign of Charles I. an event occurred which
marked an epoch in the religious history of Scotland, and
which, from the close proximity of the scene of its occurrence
to the parish of Cambusnethan, and the moral influence
which it diffused over the district, is deserving of a notice
at this period of our narrative. The parish of Shotts adjoins
the parish of Cambusnethan, along a large portion of its
northern boundary. The event alluded to was the remark-
able awakening at the Kirk of Shotts, on the 21st June,
1630. The Lord's Supper had been dispensed there on the

PARISH OF CAMBUSNETHAN. 105

previous day. Through the influence of the Marchioness of
Hamilton, several eminent ministers had met to assist in the
services connected with the dispensation of the ordinance.
Great multitudes, from a distance, had been drawn thither,
to hear these servants of Christ. The Sabbath had been a
feast-day to their souls. It had not then become customary
to have public worship on the Monday after the communion?
but a few pious persons, before the close of the Sabbath
service, requested the minister of the parish to intimate that
there would be a thanksgiving service next day, and leaving
it to him to fix on the minister who should conduct this
service. He acceded to the request, and fixed on Mr. John
Livingstone, chaplain in the family of the Countess of Wig-
ton, then residing in the neighbourhood of Shotts, as the
minister who should preach on the morrow. The services
of that Monday were conducted in the open air, at the west
end of the church-yard. The text was Ezek. xxxvi. 25, 26.
Mr. Livingstone had discoursed from this text for about an
hour, when a shower of rain began to fall. He took occasion
to improve the circumstance by remarking, " What a mercy
is it that the Lord sifts that rain through these heavens on
us, and does not rain down fire and brimstone, as he did
upon Sodom and Gomorrah !" Many were discomposed by
the shower* and were moving off, when Mr. Livingstone,
elevating his voice, said, " If some of you cannot endure a
shower of rain, how, think ye, are ye likely to stand the
outpourings of the vials of wrath in the day of the Lord? 1 '
These words arrested them; and, for another hour, the
preacher went on in a strain of warning and exhortation,
which the Lord honoured, in savingly impressing the hearts
of at least five hundred persons then listening to the message

106 HISTORICAL SKETCHES OP THE

of mercy. u The last day of the feast," on that occasion,
certainly was " the great day." There can be no doubt
that many persons from the upper part of the parish of
Cambusnethan were in that auditory, and it is allowable to
admit, that to the souls of some of them the word that day
came with power. This at least is certain, that from that
day there was a great increase of vital and practical piety
in the families resident on the banks of C alder water, and
the upper part of the parish of Cambusnethan. Meetings
for prayer and fellowship were instituted, and long main-
tained. Muiryett was particularly noted from a very early
period for one of these meetings, and the spirit which was
awakened there, more than two hundred years ago, is still
alive. Within eight years after this remarkable awakening
at the Kirk of Shotts, the conflict between Charles and the
Covenanters commenced. Almost the whole population in
Cambusnethan sympathized with the Covenanters; and
when the sifting and testing times of persecution came round,
some thirty years afterwards, it was no more than might
have been anticipated, that very many were prepared " to
take joyfully the spoiling of their goods," and to endure
"bonds and imprisonment/' rather than disown the testi-
mony which, by word and deed, they had solemnly emitted.

This brief allusion to the awakening at the Kirk of Shotts,
and the share of it in which the parish of Cambusnethan
participated, will justify us in following Mr. Livingstone a
little way in his subsequent course. In the year 1638 he
was ordained at Stranraer, and was a member of the famous
General Assembly which met that year in Glasgow Cathe-
dral. Ten years afterwards, he was removed to Ancruni,

PARISH OF CAMBUSNETHAN. 107

in Teviotdale. "When prosecuting his ministry in this
retired locality, Charles I. was beheaded. Charles II. was
then on the continent ; and when the church of Scotland
thought proper to send commissioners to Holland to entreat
the King to return, stating to him the terms on which they
were willing to acknowledge him as their King, Mr. Liv-
ingstone was deemed, one of three, best qualified to conduct
this critical overture to a favourable issue. The King was
prevailed on to return to Scotland. Mr. Livingstone had
his fears and forebodings that he could not be trusted ; and
so strongly did these impressions influence him, that he
would not permit the King to land on the soil of Scotland,
till he had solemnly sworn and subscribed the covenants.
He went on board the vessel which had couveyed his Majesty
to the shores of his native land, and dealt very faithfully
with him, before tendering to him the oath, or receiving his
subscription. However, even after receiving the royal oath
and subscription to the covenants, Mr. Livingstone seems
to have had his misgivings, that there was no real change
wrought on the King's heart, and that he secretly cherished
principles at variance with the covenants, which he had so
solemnly subscribed. Mr. Livingstone was not mistaken.
He lived to be a victim to the indignation of the Monarch,
whom he had been instrumental in restoring to the throne
of his fathers, and a martyr to the principles which he
deemed dearer to him than country, or liberty. He sub-
mitted to a voluntary banishment to Holland, where he died,
at an advanced age.

We now proceed directly with our narrative. Charles II.
— the most unprincipled of our Princes — convinced that it

108 HISTORICAL SKETCHES OF THE

was good policy towards Scotland to have the nobles and
people on his side, swore the covenants — even on his knees—
and engaged to maintain the Presbyterian church and
government in Scotland. It soon became sufficiently
obvious that he detested the church of Scotland, and her
covenants, regarding them as the curb bridle on his love of
Prelacy and arbitrary power. He was resolved to attempt
the abolition of Presbyterianism in Scotland. He dreaded
nothing so much as the power which that form of govern-
ment placed in the hands of the people. He had taken
measures, at all hazards, to establish Prelacy in its stead.
He knew that he had the English bishops, and several of
the Scottish nobles, at his back. The leading men in Scot-
land, however, were not traitors to their trust. Charles
might have thrown to the winds the solemn vows which he
made at his coronation, in the palace of Scone ; but there
were patriots in Scotland who could take up the covenants
which he had subscribed, and afterwards torn and trampled
on, and, holding them up, thus dishonoured by him, allow
them to accuse him of faithlessness to the terms on which he
had been received by his subjects, as their Sovereign. Fore-
most, in this band of patriots, was the Marquess of Argyle,
who had placed the crown on the head of Charles. Charles
and his partisans were determined to get rid of him, and
Argyle had to lay his head on the block. Twelve of the
more influential of the Presbyterian ministers drew up a
remonstrance, against the tyrannical measures which the
government were adopting. Mr. James Guthrie, minister
of Stirling, was the leader of this party. His enemies con-
cluded that, with the view of silencing his opposition to
them, he must either retract, or accept of a bishopric. He

PARISH OF CAMBUSNETHAN. 109

would do neither ; and they then resolved on putting him
to death. He was hanged and beheaded at the cross of
Edinburgh. His head was placed on the Nether-Bow port,
and for twenty-seven years remained there, a melancholy
witness against the spirit which, during that long period,
prevailed in the high places of our land. Johnston of War-
riston, the able law adviser of the Scottish church, met with
the same ignominious death, for faithful witness-bearing.

When these clouds were gathering, which ultimately
burst over the land, the good men of the times sent an
individual to London, to whom they entrusted the defence
of the Presbyteriaa cause, and the liberties which the
Covenanters now found to be in danger. The person whom
they selected for this mission, and in whom they thought
they could repose confidence, was Mr. James Sharp, minister
of Crail, in Fife. He basely betrayed the cause which he
had solemnly engaged to protect and promote. While, in
his correspondence with the leading men of the church of
Scotland, he kept up a semblance of attachment to their
cause, he was secretly lending his aid to the overthrow of
Presbyterianism and the covenants, and to the successful
introduction of Prelacy. In the plot, he played a little game
of his own, and so adroitly, as ultimately to get himself
created Archbishop of Saint Andrews, and Primate of Scot-
land. It was necessary that he should have bishops under
him, with whom he might co-operate, in carrying out the
measures, to their full extent, on which Prelacy was now
resolved. Among the Presbyterian ministers in Scotland,
he could, at first, obtain only three who consented to be
ordained to be bishops. The first was Mr. Andrew Fair-

110 HISTORICAL SKETCHES OP THE

fowl, minister of Dunse, who became Archbishop of Glasgow,
and whose character has been already adverted to, and
briefly sketched, in this volume. The second — most won-
derful to relate — was a minister, whose father's sufferings,
under the hands of Prelacy, we cannot avoid noticing. Dr.
Alexander Leighton had published a little volume, still
known, " Zion's Plea against Prelacy." This volume was
so offensive in the estimation of the leaders of the Episcopal
party, that, in the year 1629, he was seized, tried before
the infamous Star Chamber in London, and, at the instance
of Bishop Laud, was condemned to endure the following
penalties and tortures. He was fined ,£10,000. — publicly
whipped at a cart's tail — set in the pillory at Westminster
— when there, had one ear cut off, one nostril slit up, and,
on one cheek, the letters S.S. — to express Sower of Sedition
— were branded with a red hot iron. A week after this, he
was again pilloried in Cheapside, had his other ear cut off,
his other nostril slit up, and his other cheek branded with
the letters S.S., and then ordered to prison for the remain-
der of life. He remained in prison for ten years, when the
Parliament released him. Singular enough, his son, Mr.
Robert Leighton, who had been minister at Newbattle,
near Dalkeith, and who, in the year 1661, was principal
of the university of Edinburgh, consented to be consecrated
Bishop of Dunblane. And who was the third, in this small
company of bishops, who rallied around the traitorous
Sharp ? He was Mr. James Hamilton, minister of the
parish of Cambusneihan, who, having gone up to London,
with Fairfowl and Leighton, was ordained by the Bishop of
London, and came down to Scotland wearing the title of
Bishop of Galloway. When minister in Cambusnethan he

PARISH OF CAMBUSNETHAN. Ill

married into the family of Steuart of Allanton. His con-
dition as a bishop contrasted very strongly with the quietude
of his pastoral labours in Cambusnethan. He was not long
in discovering that, in Galloway, he was not reposing on a
bed of roses ; and, that his bishop's mitre pressed on his
brow, as painfully, as if it had been a chaplet of thorns.

At this point in our narrative it will be proper to bring
to recollection, what was fully stated in the previous lecture,
that Leighton came to be particularly associated with the
parish of Cambusnethan. Fairfowl, who had been made
Archbishop of Glasgow, died in the year 1663. Burnet,
who succeeded him, was dispossessed of his title and office
in the year 1670. In that year Leighton was removed from
Dunblane to Glasgow. He must have felt his position as
Archbishop, especially in Glasgow, any thing but comfort-
able, as he retained it only three years, and craved to retire
again into the quietude of Dunblane. His residence in
Garrion tower, during the period he was Archbishop, has
been formerly alluded to. As Cambusnethan was one of
his mensal kirks, and Garrion tower, as a residence, both in
respect of locality and retirement, had peculiar attractions,
it was only natural for a man, whose mental temperament
was studious and seclusive, to spend his quieter days here.
Sir John Harper, who was the proprietor of Cam'nethan
estate at the time, was also Sheriff-Depute of the county of
Lanark ; and from the proximity of Garrion tower to
Cam'nethan house, it was no more than might have been
expected, that the Bishop and the Sheriff should frequently
meet. This is confirmed by the circumstance, that they are
frequently found associated, in the records of that period, in

112 niSTORIOAL SKETCHES OF THE

carrying out the government measures within the sphere of
their jurisdiction. The Bishop must have felt his ecclesias-
tical authority to be nearly powerless, unless supported and
borne out by the strong arm of the Sheriff. Both of them
had to see that the persecuting edicts of the Privy Council
were executed. Neither of them was at home in such kind
of work. Leighton soon went back to Dunblane, that he
might avoid interfering with the devoted Covenanters of
Clydesdale ; and Harper, suspected of corresponding with
them rather than concussing them, was imprisoned in Edin-
burgh castle, and only liberated on granting a bond for ten
thousand pounds sterling, to answer when called upon.

Leighton, the late principal of Edinburgh university, and
Hamilton, late minister of Cambusnethan, had been bishops
scarcely three months, when an Act was passed having for
its object, the compelling of the Presbyterian ministers to be
re-ordained by the bishops, and subject to them ; or, if they
refused, the effectually crushing of them. In the event of any
minister refusing to conform to Prelacy, he was to be de-
prived of his stipend for that year — removed from his parish
and presbytery — prohibited from ever after exercising any
part of his ministerial office — and his parishioners who might
be in arrears with him for stipend, were not to pay him,
and, whoever attended on his ministrations were to be pro-
ceeded against as frequenters of conventicles. What was
the result? Nearly four hundred ministers, chiefly in the
southern counties of Scotland, refused to conform. In the
Presbytery of Lanark, with its thirteen parishes, not one
minister conformed. Mr. Hamilton, who had been minister
of Cambusnethan, by accepting of a bishopric, had con-

PAEISH OF CAMBUSNETHAN. 113

formed ; but he was the solitary conforming minister in the
Presbytery of Hamilton, with its fourteen parishes. Thus,
in the whole vale of Clyde, from above Tinto almost down
to Glasgow, only one minister conformed to Prelacy, and he
was Mr. James Hamilton of Cambusnethan. This circum-
stance, of itself, will go a great way to shew what was the
state of feeling among the really pious in Scotland, and
especially in Clydesdale, two hundred years ago. It will
also prepare us for the deeply interesting story of the sacri-
fices to which they submitted, rather than renounce their
principles, and the privileges to which these principles
entitled them. Let us keep in recollection, then, that
nearly four hundred ministers were silenced — nearly four
hundred parishes were left vacant — and, that into many of
these parishes curates were introduced, not only ill qualified
for ministerial work, but immoral, erroneous in their prin-
ciples, and with strong leanings towards popery.

It became exceedingly difficult for the bishops to supply
the vacant parishes with curates. The measure to which,
under the circumstance, they had recourse, was a crafty and
successful one. It was to divide the strength of the non-
conforming party, by introducing an element of discord
among them. An Act of Indulgence was passed, which
tolerated the non-conforming ministers in returning to their
former parishes, if still vacant ; or, in officiating in vacant
parishes over which they might be appointed by the Privy
Council. However, they were tolerated on the following
terms : that they submitted to the authority of the bishop —
that they confined their ministry to their own parishes — that
they discountenanced the attendance on their ministry by

n

114 HISTORICAL SKETCHES OF THE

persons from neighbouring parishes — and that if they refused
to submit to the authority of the bishop, their income should
be restricted to the occupancy of the manse and glebe, aye
and until entire submission was yielded by them. Only
forty-three ministers accepted of the indulgence on these
terms. Mr. William Vilant, who had been minister of
Ferry-port-on-Craig, in the county of Fife, was one of them.
On the 27th July, 1669, the Privy Council sent him to the
parish of Cambusnethan, in which he continued to minister
for several years.

Mr. Vilant was minister of Cambusnethan during a con-
siderable portion of the persecuting period, and had a large
share in the troubles and sufferings peculiar to that period.
He had accepted of the indulgence. This indulgence, as
might have been expected, did not work well, so far as those
who had accepted it were concerned. Their grievances
pressed heavily upon them, and retarded their usefulness.
They resolved to draw up a statement of these grievances,
and lay them before the Privy Council. Mr. Vilant must
have been regarded as a person of some business talent, as
his party selected him to draw up a statement of their
grievances. His personal grievances must be particularly
noticed. In January, 1675, he came personally before the
Council in Edinburgh, and stated that he had served the
parish faithfully from the day of his indulgence in it — that
he had a numerous family to support, but that he had not
received any part of the stipend for the years 1672, 1673,
and 1674, and craved that an order might be issued, em-
powering him to uplift the same. The Council granted

PARISH OF CAMBUSNETHAN. 115

warrant accordingly, and compelled the heritors and others
to pay the arrears.

During Mr. Vilant's ministry in Cambusnethan, the
parish acquired some notoriety, among the persecuted dis-
tricts, by the strong measures adopted by the Privy Council
against the leading persons in it, who either countenanced
the Covenanters, or did not throw the full weight of their
influence into the hands of the government; Darngavel
and Darmeid were becoming famous as gathering places,
to which the persecuted and oppressed crowded, when one
of their ministers was expected there. Black-loch, situated
a very little to the north of Cambusnethan, became peculi-
arly famous for a conventicle held there in June, 1684, and
the measures which resulted from it. There are reasons for
concluding that the sermon on that occasion was preached by
Ren wick, the last of the martyrs. This conventicle at Black-
loch gave the Council great annoyance. The greater portion
of the heritors, and principal parishioners, in Cambusnethan,
were brought into trouble in consequence of its having been
held in their vicinity, or from their having been directly, or
indirectly, concerned in it. William Steuart of Allanton,
his brother of Hartwood, Walker of Halketburn, and Mr.
Vilant, were particularly pounced upon, and were cited to
appear before the Council on the 1st July. Mr. Steuart of
Allanton had not been at the conventicle. However, he
had seen a large party who had been at it pass his house,
on their way to cross the Clyde, and because he did not
raise the hue and cry against them, he was fined in three
thousand merks. His brother, of Hartwood, on returning
from sermon at Cambusnethan kirk, had met the same party,

116 HISTORICAL SKETCHES OF THE

and because he did not raise the hue and cry against them,
he was fined in one thousand merks. This party had come
from the south side of the Clyde. They had intended to
cross it by the ford near to Carbarns, and, consequently,
passed downward by way of Cambusnethan manse. Mr.
Vilant, the minister, did not raise the hue and cry ; and,
inasmuch as he had been, in the estimation of the Council,
troublesome to them, and an eye-sore to the bishop, he was
specially cited to appear before the Council. In his defence,
he argued that, as a minister of the gospel of peace, he did
not consider it was his duty to take any part in a sanguin-
ary matter. On being closely interrogated, he confessed
that he had not confined his ministry to his own parish, and
that he had baptized children to parents who belonged to
neighbouring parishes, but refused to depone who they were.
Still further, he held that he had his instructions, as a min-
ister of the gospel, from Jesus Christ, and so behoved to
obey Him, as he was to answer to Him. These were serious
admissions on his part, in the eyes of the Council. They
were deemed a violation of the terms on which he had been
indulged at Cambusnethan. The Council were resolved to
get rid of him for the future. They declared his indulgence
to be at an end ; ordered him to prison, and to find caution
to remove out of the kingdom within a month. In the
previous lecture we have mentioned that this good man had
to submit to voluntary exile, and have narrated his subse-
quent ecclesiastical history.

These details, which are but preliminary, do, nevertheless,
possess a large amount of interest, because of their more
immediate connexion with this locality. We now enter,

PARISH OF CAMBUSNETHAN. 117

more directly, on a consideration of the minuter details of
the share which Cambusnethan had in the troubles and
sufferings of the persecuting period. Many persons in this
parish suppose that Arthur Inglis of Netherton was our
solitary martyr. They require to be set right on this point.

The first rising of the oppressed and persecuted, by taking
up arms, was in Galloway. The first mustering place was
at Ochiltree, in Ayrshire. The little army passed thence
towards Mauchline, Muirkirk, Douglas, and Lanark, gather-
ing numbers and strength in its progress. This was in the
year 1666. At that time Sir James Steuart of Coltness had
a chaplain and tutor in his family — a licentiate — a young
man of decided piety and talent, of the name of M'Kail.
He was nephew to one of the Edinburgh ministers. About
four years previous to the rising into arms referred to, Mr.
M'Kail, in a sermon delivered in his uncle's pulpit, had
taken occasion to advert to the miserable condition of a
nation, when there was " an Ahab on the throne, a Haman
in the state, and a Judas in the church." When the occasion
on which this discourse was spoken, and the auditory before
whom it was delivered, are taken into account, it will not
be surprising that the statement of the preacher should have
been looked upon, as being directly pointed at three individ-
uals then occupying the high places in the country. There
was but one opinion that Charles II. was the unprincipled
Ahab — that the Earl of Lauderdale, alike cruel, unscrupu-
lous, and dissolute, was the Haman — and the traitorous
James Sharp, who was now Archbishop of Saint Andrews,
and Primate of Scotland, was the Judas. From that day Mr.
M'Kail was a marked man by the heads of the goverment

118 HISTORICAL SKETCHES OF THE

in church and state, and they longed for an opportunity
when, by some overt act on his part, they might feel justified
in seizing him, and proceeding formally to be avenged upon
him. Mr. M'Kail was aware of this, and as the vengeance
of the oppressors had fallen on Sir Jame3 Steuart and his
family, he secretly retired to Holland, where he resided for
four years, hoping that the storm of persecution which had
arisen would abate. But for this prudent step, he might
have met his doom much sooner.

On returning to Scotland, he found the state of matters
much worse than when he left it. The yearnings of his
heart were towards the persecuted; and with youthful
ardour he joined them at Lanark, and proceeded with them
towards Pentland. On the way thither, the state of his
health was such as to oblige him to leave them, and to
retire to Liberton, that he might recruit under the parental
roof. His enemies tracked him out, *and carried him a
prisoner to Edinburgh. When brought before the Council,
he availed himself of his privilege not to say anything which
might be construed into a ground of accusation, either
against himself or others. He refused to answer many
questions put to him. He was threatened with the torture
of the boot, that infamous engine of cruelty, in the hope of
extorting something from him, which he was supposed to
conceal. It was in vain. The torture was actually inflicted,
and the young sufferer endured it with the meekness which
deep christian principle will always exhibit, when called on
to suffer for the truth. His limbs were so much injured,
and his health affected, by the tortures of the boot, that the
Council could not proceed in his case for fully a fortnight.

PARISH OF CAMBUSNETHAN. 119

They were, however, resolved on his condemnation. They
had neither forgotten nor forgiven the allusions to Ahab,
Hainan, and Judas. He was formally accused of rebellion.
He nobly defended himself. His death was determined on ;
and on the 22d December, 1666, he was executed at the
cross of Edinburgh. He was one of the youngest of our
Scottish martyrs, being only in his twenty -sixth year.

Mr. M'Kail is generally understood to have been the
Epkraim Macbriar of Sir Walter Scott's Old Mortality. Sir
Walter has been pleased to speak of him as " the fanatical
Ephraim Maebriar." There is no evidence that he deserved
such an epithet. The sufferings which he undeservedly
endured, under infirm health, were sufficient to have un-
hinged, or at least discomposed his mind ; yet Sir Walter
represents him as uttering the following testimony before
the Council, in which we fail to discover anything akin to
fanaticism : —

" 'Do you know who that man is?' said Lauderdale, in
a low, stern voice, almost sinking into a whisper.

11 'He is, I suppose,' replied Macbriar, 'the infamous
executioner of your bloodthirsty commands upon the persons
of God's people. He and you are equally beneath my
regard ; and, I bless God, I no more fear what he can
inflict than what you can command. Flesh and blood may
shrink under the sufferings you can doom me to, and poor
frail nature may shed tears, or send forth cries ; but I trust
my soul is anchored firmly on the Rock of ages.'

" 'Do your duty,' said the Duke to the executioner."

The torture was inflicted, and Macbriar is represented as
having fainted under it, so that it was discontinued. The

120 HISTORICAL SKETCHES OF THE

sentence of death, however, was pronounced upon him, so
soon as he had revived. Macbriar then said : —

" l My lords, I thank you for the only favour I looked for,
or would accept at your hands, namely, that you have sent
the crushed and maimed carcass, which has this day sus-
tained your cruelty, to this hasty end. It were indeed little
to me whether I perish on the gallows, or in the prison-
house ; but if death, following close on what I have this
day suffered, had found me in my cell of darkness and
bondage, many might have lost the sight how a Christian
man can suffer in the good cause. For the rest, I forgive
you, my lords, for what you have appointed and I have
sustained. — And why should I not? — Ye send me to a happy
exchange — to the company of angels and the spirits of the
just, for that of frail dust and ashes. — Ye send me from
darkness into day — from mortality to immortality — and, in
a word, from earth to heaven ! — If the thanks, therefore,
and pardon of a dying man can do you good, take them at
my hand, and may your last moments be as happy as
mine.' "

We leave it to the verdict of impartiality to say, whether
these be the sentiments or utterances of a fanatic. The
words which Mr. M'Kail did utter on the scaffold, at the
cross of Edinburgh, are worth being recorded. Of all utter-
ances on that scaffold, from the lips of martyrs, the dying
testimony of young M l Kail, in point of eloquence, has never
been equalled. " Farewell father and mother, friends and
relatives — farewell the world and all its delights — farewell
sun, moon, and stars — welcome God and Father — welcome
sweet Jesus Christ, the Mediator of the new covenant —

PARISH OF CAMBUSNETHAN. 121

welcome blessed Spirit of grace, and God of all consolations
— welcome glory — welcome eternal life — welcome death!"

Mr. M'Kail was accompanied to the scaffold by David
and James Steuart of Coltness, two of his young pupils,
who were ardently attached to him. On the scaffold, he
gave his Bible to David, who afterwards became Sir David
Steuart. This Bible long remained, as an honoured relic,
in the Coltness family, but it is uncertain whether it now
exists. After the execution of M'Kail, a circumstance
transpired which has tended to blacken the character of
Sharp, the Archbishop, with the darkest infamy. Ten men
who had been at Pentland were hanged on one gibbet, and
thirty-five others before their own doors, in different parts
of the country. The executions were actually so numer-
ous and merciless, that the King wrote down to the Privy
Council to stay the work of death. Sharp actually kept up
the King's letter, till after M^KaiVs execution. He bore the
young martyr a grudge, and was determined on its gratifi-
cation. The late Dr. Cooke, in his History of the time,
thinks Sharp was innocent ; but the clearest evidence has
attested his guilt, and we do not wonder that, under the
excitement which such perfidy evoked, men did combine to
destroy the Archbishop in the manner in which they did.
The connexion which Mr. Hugh M'Kail had with the family
of Sir James Steuart of Coltness, has justified us in identi-
fying him with the parish of Cambusnethan, and enrolling
him on the list of her sufferers and martyrs.

The battle of Drumclog was one of the most notable
events in the troublous times to which we are now alluding.

122 HISTORICAL SKETCHES OF THE

It was fought on the first Sabbath in June, 1679. The
dragoons, who had that morning gone to disperse a meeting
of the Covenanters convened for public worship, were headed
by Claverhouse. The Covenanters were victorious. Claver-
house with difficulty escaped, having had his horse shot
under him. Flushed with victory, the Covenanters pro-
ceeded to Hamilton, and rested for the night. At Hamilton,
Walter Paterson of Carbarns, a pious youth of eighteen
years, joined them. They were here greatly reinforced, and
next forenoon proceeded to Glasgow, increasing their num-
bers by the way. On reaching Glasgow, they divided
themselves into two parties — one entering by the Townhead,
and the other by the Gallowgate. They were undisciplined,
and had not officers of suitable experience in their attack
on the city, otherwise it is very probable they would have
driven the regular forces out of it, and taken possession of
it. At the Gallowgate bridge they were attacked by the
soldiery, and in this attack young Paterson and several
others fell. The papers of the day assert, that Claverhouse
had given orders that they should not be buried, and that
the butchers' dogs should be allowed to eat them. The
corpses lay on the street from eleven o'clock in the forenoon
till after midnight, as the inhumanity of the soldiery pre-
vented every one from removing them. They were, however,
removed under cloud of night. The indignity afterwards
done to these corpses must be narrated. By pious hands
they had been decently dressed, preparatory to burial ; but
the savage soldiery broke into the apartment in which they
had been laid out — tore off the linens — and actually carried
off the funeral shrouds. Nobody dared to bury the dead
bodies, till at length a few heroic women resolved to make

PARISH OP CAMBUSNETHAN. 123

the attempt. As they, were bearing the bodies along the
High Street towards the Cathedral burying- ground, the
soldiers, with their swords, cut the mortcloths to tatters, and
carried off the spokes by which the coffins had been upborne,
leaving the coffins on the street. These devoted women,
however, did not desist in their attempt to bury their dead.
They took off their plaids — placed them beneath the coffins,
and in this mode conveyed the corpses so much nearer the
burial-ground. The soldiers again attacked them — took
their plaids from them — and threatened them, if they took
any farther step in having the dead bodies interred. They
had by this time reached the point where the Rottenrow
joins the High Street. The alms-house — remains of which
still exist — stood there. They bore the coffins into the
alms-house. They lay there, with their contents, for
several days, till Mr. John Welsh, and a party of friends
from Ayr, carried the coffins to the High Church-yard, and
deposited them in a grave near the wall on the north-east
corner of the old Cathedral.

The battle of Both well Bridge was also fought on a
Sabbath-day — exactly three weeks after the battle of Drum-
clog. There were a goodly number of persons belonging
to Cambusnethan at Both well, and were, in consequence,
brought to trouble, suffering, and loss. One of them was
James Gourlay, who tenanted the farm of Overtown. When
he perceived that the Covenanters had lost the day, he fled
for safety. He was hotly pursued by a few dragoons. In
his flight, he found his progress interrupted by the wall
which surrounded the policy of the Duke of Hamilton. If,
by any possibility, he could get over the wall, he was certain

124 II1ST0RICAL SKETCHES OF THE

to escape his pursuers ; but the difficulty was how to get
over. He observed a crevice between two stones in the
wall — too small, however, to admit of introducing the point
of his shoe. Necessity has always been the mother of in-
vention. Putting his hand into his pocket, he drew out a
clasp knife, which he managed to introduce into the crevice,
and, putting his foot on it, reared himself, and with one
spring cleared the wall, while the bullets from the muskets
of his pursuers whizzed past his ears. He fled towards the
Clyde ; and observing that a spreading branch of a tree
hung close over the surface of the river, he sprang in,
and under the screening shelter of this branch he stood,
almost to the neck in water, till midnight. All dripping
wet, he ventured homeward ; but not to enjoy the comforts
of his own bed or fireside. He knew of a quiet and secluded
spot in Garrion-gill, and chose it for his hiding place. He
had, however, to pay the penalty of his long cold bath, and
wet clothing. They brought on an asthmatic affection,
which clung to him during life. One evening he ventured
home, to enjoy domestic comforts, and the nursing of an
affectionate wife. Some of the troopers were not far off,
and were made aware that Gourlay was under his own roof.
They approached the house at midnight. Gourlay, on being
aware of his danger, sprang out of bed — quietly drew the
bar of the back door — and, committing himself to the pro-
tection of God, fled to his hiding-place in the Gill. On a
subsequent occasion he was less fortunate; having been
taken prisoner, and led off towards Hamilton. At a place
near Hamilton, where the Clyde was fordable, there was
an ale-house. The troopers having stabled their horses
here, and locked Gourlay in the stable, entered the ale-house,

PARISH OF CAMBUSNETHAN. 125

to regale themselves, and crack their jokes over their good
fortune in capturing the old whig. Gourlay had now an
opportunity of escaping, and he did not lose it. Getting on
to the back of one of the horses, he managed to reach the
baulks of the stable, and as the stable had only a thatch
roof, he succeeded in opening a hole in it, and thereby escaped.
He dashed through the river, and sought the hiding-place
under the tree, which had served him in his hour of need,
when flying from Bothwell. He subsequently reached his
hiding-place in Garrion-gill ; but, for greater safety, was
necessitated to leave the country. The days of persecution
came to an end. The Revolution introduced happier times,
and James Gourlay improved them. He survived the
Revolution twenty-five years. In the year 1714, his aged
bones were borne to the old church-yard of Cambusnethan,
and there his dust rests safely, awaiting the resurrection.
The Gourlays of Motherwell are sprung from this honourable
stock. Old James Gibb of Cambusnethan is the great-
grandson of James Gourlay of Overtown, and to him the
author has been indebted for the above facts in the history
of his witness-bearing progenitor.

Two hundred years ago, there was a homely farm onstead
in the valley, mid-way between Cam'nethan house and
Garrionhaugh, called " Cam'nethan Mains/' The farm was
tenanted by Alexander and James Gray, two brothers, who
had a large share of loss and suffering during the troublous
times to which our narrative refers. Their house, during
the greater portion of the persecuting period, afforded a
temporary but welcome shelter to those who were flying
from danger. The hungry and weary always found refresh-

126 HISTORICAL SKETCHES OF THE

: Of

ook

ment and repose under it3 roof. Indeed, it was one
their favourite haunts, where they often communed, took
council amid their straits, and joined in their devotional
exercises. It was at that time a crime to be a resetter of
a Covenanter. For several years the brothers Gray were
suspected of being guilty of this alleged crime, and occasion-
ally, for weeks together, Alexander had to betake himself
to a hiding-place in Garrion-gill. Cold, damp, and priva-
tion broke down a vigorous constitution, and brought on
disease. He was visibly dying, yet it was still unsafe to
remove him from his damp cave in the Gill, to the comforts
of his own house and bed, in Cam'nethan Mains. He re-
quired an amount of attention which it was impossible to
render him, unless he could be brought nearer home. Under
cloud of night he was removed to the centre of a corn field,
near his own house. Here, for weeks, the dying man lay,
exposed to the rains by day, and the dews by night, till at
length his friends resolved, at all hazards, to remove him to
the shelter and comforts of his own house. They had now
risen above the fear of man, because, in a brief space, the
emaciated body of Alexander Gray would find a narrow
bed " where the wicked cease from troubling, and the weary
are at rest." Sir John Harper, Sheriff- depute of Lanark-
shire, was at that time proprietor of Cam'nethan. In virtue
of his office, he had to execute the persecuting edicts of
those in power, and had frequently attempted to make a
prisoner of Alexander Gray. His lady was a person of a
christian spirit, and her sympathies flowed very freely, but
secretly, in favour of the oppressed. Whenever an oppor-
tunity afforded, unknown to her husband or domestics, she
quietly walked up on an evening to call at Cam'nethan

PARISH OF CAMBUSNETHAN. 127

Mains, to join in the devotions and share in the pious con-
versation around its hearth. Her visits having become
frequent, they were discovered, and became the subject of
remark and inquiry on the part of her husband. Her ready
explanation was, " that she thought the gudewife at the
Mains managed her dairy better than the dairy-maid did
at Cam'nethan house, and she found herself profited by the
lessons which she was there acquiring." James Gray sur-
vived his brother, and was on his way to Bothwell Bridge,
on the morning of the memorable conflict, when the tidings
reached him that his friends had been vanquished. He
held his principles steadfastly, and consistently, till better
days came round; and, " having served his generation,"
his body was laid beside the bones of Alexander, in the old
church -yard of Cambusnethan. The hospitalities, to which
the wanderer was always welcome, under the roof of Cam'-
nethan Mains, have been referred to. In connexion with
them, it may be mentioned, that the bread-roller, which
must have been in frequent requisition on the kitchen table
of Cam'nethan Mains, rolling out the cakes and scones, in
haste, for the hungry visitors, is still preserved by a female,
at Douglas, of the name of Gray, who esteems it as a relic
from the household of her honoured progenitor at Cam'nethan
Mains.

At the period of our narrative, the farm of Kirkhill was
tenanted by Robert Paterson, who was probably nearly
related to Paterson of Carbarns. Robert took up arms with
the party who joined Richard Cameron, and was one of the
many who fell at the battle of Ayrsmoss, in the year 1680.
His son, William, partook of his father's spirit and views.

128 HISTORICAL SKETCHES OF THE

His landlord, who resided at Muirhouse, actually ejected
him from his farm, for no other reason than refusing
conform to Prelacy ; and seizing him, forced him to become
a soldier, and had him afterwards removed out of the
country. When abroad, William managed to effect his
escape, and to return home ; but in the year 1685, on a
Sabbath-day, at a fellowship meeting at Garrionhaugh, he
was unexpectedly seized by a party of soldiers. The devout
company, disturbed on this occasion, consisted of fourteen
persons. Ten of them managed to escape, and conceal
themselves in Garrion-gill ; but William Paterson and three
others were taken. These thre»e took the abjuration oath,
and were spared. William Paterson refused to take it, and
was that afternoon carried to Strathaven castle, where he
was, on the same day, shot by the hands of Captain Bell.
The following inscription is on the stone at his grave, in
Strathaven burial-ground : —

u Here lies the corpses of William Paterson and John
Barrie, who were shot to death for their adhering to the
Word of God, and covenanted work of reformation, anno.
1685.

"Here lie two martyrs severally who fell

By Captain Inglis, and by bloody Bell.

Posterity shall know they're shot to death,

As sacrifices unto Popish wrath."

The original stone, with its inscription, having become
very decayed, the inhabitants of Strathaven, in the year
1832, erected the present stone, which contains a copy of
the original inscription. John Barrie, who was buried in
the grave with William Paterson, belonged to Avondale.
He had a pass in his hand, and shewed it to Inglis ; but

PARISH OF CAMBUSNETHAN. 129

although he did so, and no accusation could be preferred
against him, such was the blood-thirsty disposition of
Inglis, that he maintained that John Barrie was one who
deserved to die, and instantly shot him. This act of cruelty
on the part of Inglis will be the less wondered at, when we
mention that, a short time before this, he cut off the head
of James White, at Newmilns, and afterwards kicked it
about, as if it had been a football

The farm-house at Kirkhill, like that at Cam'nethan
Mains, was the occasional residence, and refuge, of the
persecuted. There is a tradition — which the author had
from the venerable lady who at present occupies Kirkhill,
which she, in her youth, often heard from a very aged per-
son, who resided at the old church-yard — to the following
effect. One evening a party of troopers, who had been in
quest of two men who were reported to haunt at Kirkhill,
unexpectedly surrounded the house. The men, unfortu-
nately, were there. The family had just finished their
homely supper on sowens, when thus surprised. Only a
few minutes were allowed to the two men, whose doom had
just been pronounced, to prepare for death. That humble
hearth became the scene of one of the most revolting deeds
in the annals of the persecuting period. The soldiers ripped
them up with their swords ; and those who were witnesses
of this inhuman deed were in the habit of observing, that
their feelings were overpowered by the circumstance of the
food, which the unhappy men had just eaten, being poured
out on the hearth- stone.

The persons who suffered, in the parish of Cambusnethan,

i

130 HISTORICAL SKETCHES OF THE

in one form or other, were really so numerous, that, were
their cases fully detailed, this volume would greatly exceed
the limits which the writer of it has prescribed to himself.
It will, on this account, be necessary to study a measure of
conciseness.

In the list of sufferers the name of John Bryce, meal-
maker in Cambusnethan, occurs. He had been at Pentland
— he refused to take the bond never again to take up arms
against the King — and, for his refusal, was banished to
Virginia, and not to return on pain of death.

Alexander Smith, who was alleged to have been at
Bothwell, was carried prisoner to Edinburgh. He escaped
from prison, disguised in women's clothes. He was again
apprehended, but rescued at Inchbelly-bridge, near Glasgow.
He was a third time captured, and sent to Dunnottar castle,
from which stronghold, however, he managed to escape ;
but on being a fourth time apprehended, he was strictly
guarded, and continued a prisoner till the Revolution.

James Pettigrew had been at Bothwell Bridge . As a
penalty, he had to endure having a party of soldiers quar-
tered upon him, and only got rid of them, after a time, by
giving them three hundred merks. In the year 1681, he
was apprehended and carried to Edinburgh, where he was
kept a prisoner for three months, and was then liberated, on
condition of paying five hundred merks to Gavin Muirhead
of Lauchop. Two years afterwards he was oppressed by
the laird of Meldrum, who forced him to buy back his own
horses, at an expense of two hundred merks.

PARISH OF COIBUSNETHAN. 131

Robert Russel was one day met by a party of soldiers.
They had no accusation to bring against him, but because
he refused to answer the questions put to him, and declined
to own the King's authority, he was carried to Edinburgh,
and there lay in irons for two years*

James Forrest in Oldyards and his son, with his nephew,
Robert Gourlay, were apprehended. The only crime of
which they could be accused was, their having given food
and shelter to the persecuted. In the eyes of their perse-
cutors, this of itself was so heinous a crime, as to be deemed
a sufficient warrant for spoiling them of their goods, and,
after a period of imprisonment, banishing them to West
Flanders. They effected their escape, and returned home
towards the close of the year 1683. James and his son
were again apprehended, and banished to Jamaica ; and
Margaret, daughter of James, was, after a long imprison-
ment, banished to Jersey.

Gavin Muirhead, for alleged rebellion and reset of rebels,
was banished to the plantations in the West Indies.

Gavin Lawrie in Redmyre was imprisoned, because he
had furnished refreshments in his house, to persons return-
ing from the conventicle at Black-loch.

John Miller in Watersaugh — who built Cambusnethan
church, in the year 1650 — was accused of having had cor-
respondence with rebels. This was the whole of his offence ;
yet, after an imprisonment of nine months, he was liberated
only on granting bond and caution for the exorbitant sum

132 HISTORICAL SKETCHES OF THE

of five thousand pounds sterling, to appear within sixty
days after citation, to answer any charge then to be pre-
ferred against him.

David Russel, Archibald Prentice, John Cleland, and
John Smith, residing in Stane, were imprisoned for three
months, and each fined to the amount of one hundred pounds,
because they had not raised the hue and cry against a party
who had been at the conventicle at Black-loch, and who,
on returning homeward, had passed their houses. David
Russel was the father of George Russel, who, on the 18th
July, 1699, was ordained an elder in Cambusnethan . George
Russel, the son, as we have seen in our narrative of the
origin of the Associate congregation at Daviesdykes, was
one of the seven elders who protested against the admission
of Mr. Craig. There can be no doubt that Archibald Pren-
tice, the second name on the list of sufferers at Stane, was
the father of James Prentice, another of the seven elders,
and one of the founders of the Associate congregation.

Robert Steel, portioner in Stane, was, in his absence,
indicted for having been at Bothwell. He was adjudged to
have been guilty of treason, was fdrfeited, and doomed to
be executed whenever found.

William Dalziel, in West Redmyre, on refusing to take
"the test," was imprisoned at Glasgow; and, owing to the
hardships which he there endured, in the course of nine
months imprisonment, died. No entreaty could prevail to
allow the dying man to be removed from prison ; and, even
after his death, it was with very great difficulty that relatives

PARISH OF cambusnethan. 133

were permitted to remove his body, that it might be interred
in the graves of his forefathers, in the old churchward.

George Russel, in West Redmyre had been informed
against, for having received baptism for a child at a con-
venticle. No evidence was adduced beyond report, yet on
the bare report he was imprisoned at Lanark, and after-
wards in Edinburgh. "With the view of getting rid of him,
he was gifted to be a recruit, and sent abroad into the army,
where he died.

John Marshall, tenant on the Coltness estate, refused
i( the test," and, in consequence, had two cows taken from
him, together with his whole crop.

John Torrance, for a similar reason, had a cow, six sheep,
his whole crop, and every thing portable in his house, taken
from him.

In the list of those against whom a decree of fugitation
was executed, the following names occur : — Robert Steel,
in Stane ; John Steuart, in Goukthraple ; Andrew Cleland,
in Fimmington ; Jaines Brownlie, servant to the gudewife
of Garrionhaugh ; James Alexander, gardener at Coltness ;
James Baird, in Kirkhill ; William Brown, in Towartbush ;
William Paterson, in Murray s ; and William Purdie, John
Forrest, Gavin Brown, Waiter Pitcairn, James Watt, Gavin
Paterson, all in Overtown.

Thomas Paton, a worthy man, resided at the old kirk of
Cambusnethan. He was implicated in the rising which led

134 HISTORICAL SKETCHES OF THE *

to the battle of Bothwell Bridge ; and on this account was,
with many others, u forfeited in life, lands, and goods," — so
runs the wording of the proclamation against him. He
fled. He was tried in absence — condemned — and ordered
to be executed as a traitor whenever found. This was in
the year 1681. The year 1688 brought the Stuart dynasty
to a termination, and introduced the Revolution. The
sentence of forfeiture of life, lands, and liberty, which had
passed on so many godly persons in Clydesdale and else-
where, and driven them into exile, was then rescinded.
Those who survived the Revolution were permitted to return
home, and enjoy their own again. On carefully looking
over a very long list of hundreds of names of the forfeited
aud exiled, who availed themselves of the happy restoration
to their homes and families, the following are met with : —
Robert Steel, portioner in Stane ; Thomas Steuart of Colt-
ness ; David Steuart of Coltness ; and Thomas Paton, at
the old kirk of Cambusnethan.

The troubles and sufferings to which the Steuarts of
Coltness — as a family — were subjected, during the perse-
cuting period, if fully detailed, wonld of themselves form a
deeply interesting episode. As a family, they have been
proverbial for high-toned piety and patriotism. James
Steuart, the founder of the Coltness branch of the Steuart
family, was a man of high character and extensive influence.
In addition to what we have already said of him, when
sketching the history of the Coltness Steuarts, we mention
that he was provost of Edinburgh from the year 1648 till
1660. He was a staunch adherent to the royalist cause,
and as staunch an adherent to the principles of the cove-

PARISH OF CAMBUSNETHAN. 135

n ants. He took a very active part in the restoration of
Charles II. : and, as an illustration of the extravagance to
which even good men then went, in the exuberance of their
loyalty to the Stuarts, it may be mentioned, that, under
the sanction of Sir James Steuart, then provost of Edin-
burgh, after sermon, on a day of thanksgiving — 19th June,
1660 — " many came to the cross, where a table was covered
with sweetmeats — the table ran with wine — three hundred
dozen of wine glasses were broken — there were fire- works
on the castle-hill in the evening, with the effigies of Crom-
well and the devil pursuing him, till at length by gunpowder
Cromwell was blown into the air." In less than a month
after this, an order came from London to seize and imprison
certain parties, the head and front of whose offending was,
they were Covenanters* The first person on the list was Sir
James Steuart, provost of Edinburgh. He was seized and
imprisoned accordingly, and for years continued either in
prison or under bond. He had been present at the sermon
preached by his chaplain, Mr. Hugh M'Kail, to which
reference has already been made, and because certain state-
ments were reported to have been made by the preacher,
offensive to the heads of the government, Sir James and his
son, Walter, were brought into great trouble. Walter was
seized and imprisoned. Sir James soon after suffered in the
same mode; and after long imprisonment in Edinburgh,
was, in the year 1676, removed to the tolbooth of Dundee,
and after an imprisonment there of two years, obtained
liberation. In the year 1679, he was again committed a
prisoner to Edinburgh castle. He had to pay two fines —
the one amounting to £500, and the other to £1,000. In
consideration of his age and infirmity, he was liberated, and

136 HISTORICAL SKETCHES OF THE

allowed to return to Coltness, under bond of ten thousand
merks to appear when called. He died two years after-
wards.

Walter Steuart, the second son of Sir James, was accused
of emitting speeches, tending towards sedition, in a smith} 7 ,
while public matters were being discussed. From the
minutes of Privy Council, under date 11th November, 1662,
he appears to have denied having uttered the speeches
alleged to have been spoken by him. Witnesses having
been examined, the Council found that some things had
been uttered tending to sedition, and ordered him to be
imprisoned till further orders regarding him were given.
Under his imprisonment his health gave way, and death
removed him from this stage of suffering, even before young
M l Kail, his tutor,— on whose account Steuart was brought
into trouble, — had been called upon to seal his testimony
with his blood. The body of young Steuart sleeps with
kindred dust, within the precincts of our old church-yard,
and he must, for the reasons now recorded, be enrolled
among the martyrs whose graves are within the same se-
questered spot.

The provost of Edinburgh had several sons. We have
already heard of Walter, and shall yet hear of Thomas and
David. One of his sons — James by name — was educated
for the bar, and became an eminent lawyer and pleader.
At that time a notable paper appeared, entitled " Scotland's
Grievances ;" and there being good reasons for concluding
that it was the production of James Steuart's pen, an order
came down from London to seize and confine him, not

PAKISH OF CAMBUSNETHAN. 137

allowing him to hold converse with his friends, by word or
writing, and that all his papers and cabinets should be seized
and sealed. He got notice of all this, and for several years
managed to conceal himself. When the Earl of Argyll
was brought into trouble, no one was deemed so well quali-
fied to prepare his defences as young Steuart. The plead-
ings were detected to be in Steuart's hand- writing. This
was deemed an offence so grave that he was put to the horn,
and all his effects were forfeited. He fled to Holland, and
continued there till the toleration, when he returned home.
After the Kevolution he was promoted to the office of Lord
Advocate for Scotland — an office which he filled with great
ability during the reign of William III. It is not generally
known, but deserves to be mentioned, that the volume en-
titled " Naphtali ; or, The Hind Let Loose," was the joint
production of the Lord Advocate and the Kev. Mr. Stirling
of Paisley. Mr. Steuart died in the year 1713.

Thomas — the first baronet in the Coltness family — was
brought to great trouble, suffering, and loss, in consequence
of being accused of having aided and abetted the rebels on
the occasion of Bothwell Bridge. He is described as having
been <4 a man of eminently holy life, shining conversation,
and many other excellent endowments.' 1 In the criminal
charges preferred against him, there was no legal proof of
his having directly supplied food for the persecuted party,
on occasion of the battle at Bothwell ; but that food had
been obtained at Coltness house, was sufficiently clear.
The probability is, that Thomas made up his mind to be
entirely passive in the matter. The friends of the Cove-
nanters, anticipating a battle at Bothwell, made preparations

138 HISTORICAL SKETCHES OF THE

for it ; and, aware that something in addition to powder
and ball was requisite, concluded that they were likely to
find it in the larder of Coltness house. They were well
aware that its whole contents were at their command, and
that the safest policy on their part was not to implicate Mr.
Steuart, but carry off whatever was suitable in the exigency.
When the case of Mr. Steuart came to trial, three things
were charged agaiust him — first, that he had furnished meat
and drink to the rebels at Bothwell ; second, that he had
resetted men going to and fro, on occasion of the battle ;
and third, that he had taken guilt to himself, and fled from
justice. When the proof was led, one James Cooper de-
poned, that he saw Coltness standing at his own gate, and
send off a sledge with bread, meat, two cold turkeys, and
drink ; and that he took back into his service his butler and
gardener, though they had been at Bothwell. Another
person deponed, that he saw the servants carry the food to
Hamilton moor. James Black deponed, that he sold six
gallons of ale, carried it to Hamilton moor, and got payment
from Coltness' servants. It was farther adduced in evidence
against Thomas Steuart, that he refused or declined to
put his tenants out of their farms or houses, though they
had been at field preachings, and had also refused to take
any part in apprehending them. On these charges he was
condemned ; and by an Act of Parliament passed in 1685,
his lands were declared forfeited, and for ever annexed to
the crown, not to be dissolved from it but by Parliament.
Mr. Steuart fled to Holland, and remained there tHl the
Revolution. During the year 1686, the crown gave the
baronies of Coltness, Goodtrees, and North Berwick, to the
Earl of Arran, in acknowledgement of his services against

PABISH OF CAMBUSNETHAN. 139

the Earl of Argyll. After the Eevolution Mr. Steuart had
his estates restored to him ; and, as a compensation for the
losses which he had sustained during the period of his for-
feiture, he had £200. annually allowed him, out of the
revenues of the Archbishopric of Glasgow.

One of the family reminiscences of the Steuarts, during
the persecuting period, the author obtained from a gentleman
who had for many years been on terms of intimacy with the
late Sir James Steuart. Claverhouse and a body of his
dragoons were, at least, one night at Coltness house. Their
company — as may well be conceived — was anything but
welcome or agreeable. Several of the servants, and the
. greater number of the tenantry on the Coltness estate, had
identified themselves with the party who had been driven to
take up arms in self defence. On the occasion of this visit
by Claverhouse, they deemed it prudent to conceal them-
selves. The coal pits, entering from the Temple- gill, were
their hiding-places. They knew that Sir James would not
betray them, but, on the other hand, do all in his power to
conceal and protect them. Indeed, so great was his anxiety
for their safety and comfort in their hiding-places, that it
almost divulged to Claverhouse the secret which it was
necessary to hide from him. The company at Coltness had
just sat down to supper when Sir James said to the servants
who were in waiting, "Noo, lads, see an' dinna forget to
gi'e the nowt their supper the nicht." The servants gave
their master such a nod, and expressive look, as to satisfy
him that they understood the secret meaning of his instruc-
tions. As they were removing the cloth he said "Noo, see
and dinna forget the nowt" As the evening advanced, he

140 HISTORICAL SKETCHES OF THE

took occasion to ask them " Are ye sure the nowt have
gotten their supper?' 7 Claverhouse did not assert that
his host was offering him an insult, but took occasion to
remark, that "it certainly was what he had not expected,
that Sir James should seem to be more concerned for the
comfort of his ■ nowt,' than the entertainment of his Majes-
ty's servants.'"

David Steuart of Coltness — to whom M'Kail gave his
Bible when on the scaffold — had his own share of the an-
noyances and sufferings of these times. In the year 1685,
he was indicted for treason. On his trial, the only things
which he admitted, to which his prosecutors could attach
guilt, were, " that he had gone over to Holland — conversed
there with the late Earl of Argyll — that he had returned
with him to the Highlands — continued with the rebels till
taken — and that he had a sword." On these grounds the
Lords of Justiciary sentenced him to be executed, at the
cross of Edinburgh, on the Wednesday thereafter, 22d July,
1685. On the Monday — the 20th of the month — the Lords
of Council ordered a reprieve till the 3d of September. On
the 25th August, the King continued the reprieve till he
should signify his pleasure to the contrary, but that David
Steuart should be kept a close prisoner. Matters were now
hastening to a crisis in Scotland. The Stuart dynasty had
nearly run its course. Its cup of iniquity had filled very
rapidly. There are limits to endurance, and these limits
had now been nearly reached. The days of persecution and
blood came to an end. The imprisoned and exiled members
of the Coltness family were set free, or were allowed to
return home. The ^Revolution removed the last of the

PAEISH OF CAMBUSNETHAN. 141

Stuarts from the throne, and introduced happier times.
The survivors of this troublous period returned to enjoy their
own again in peace.

The share which the Coltness family had in the troubles
and sufferings of the twenty-seven years of persecution, has
justified us in giving to their case the prominency, and
minuteness of detail, which we have done. As a family,
they now exist only on the page of history ; but, as it is
the business of history to deal faithfully with the past, and
especially to chronicle the deeds of the patriotic and the
virtuous, we cordially add our stone to the cairn which
covers the sepulchres of a house which struggled so long, so
consistently, and so successfully, for the liberties which we
continue to enjoy.

The name of Arthur Inglis has been mentioned oftener
than any other in our parish, in connexion with the times
of suffering and martyrdom. This is accounted for by the
circumstance, that his grave is the only one in our old
church-yard which has been honoured with a memorial
stone. We question whether several others buried there have
not been equally deserving of this honour, and a few, more
so. They testified for the principles of a covenanted refor-
mation, and maintained this testimony, with honour, in a
day of trial ; whereas there is no direct evidence that Arthur
Inglis had given any such open testimony, or that he had
identified himself with the oppressed and persecuted party
in the land. The only particulars which have been gathered
concerning him are, that he was the tenant on the farm of
Netherton. On the 23d June, 1679, the morning after the

142 HISTORICAL SKETCHES OF THE

battle of Bothwell Bridge, he was herding his cows at
Stockleton-dyke. He was a devout man, and had hi3 Bible
in his hand while watching his cows. At that period a
road ran along the vale, near the old church, onward past
Cam'nethan house, and towards the Law of Carluke. Two
or three dragoons were that morning passing along this
road, and observing a man perusing a book, inferred he was
a whig. One of them discharged his carabine at him, but
missed him. Arthur Inglis had not been aware of their
approach, and, startled by the discharge of the gun, his
Bible was thrown up into the air. He looked round to
ascertain from what quarter the shot had come, when the
dragoon who had fired, irritated that his shot had not taken
effect, galloped up, and with one stroke of his sword on the
head of the good man, laid him dead on the spot. Whether
any stone was put up at his grave when he was buried, is
uncertain. The old stone, with its quaint inscription, was
put up in the year 1733. The inscription is as follows : —

" Here Lyes
Arthur Inglis in Nethertown
Who Was shot at Stockelton
Dyke by bloody Graham of
Claversehouse, July, 1679.
for his adherence to the word
Of God, and Scotland's Cov
enanted work of Reformation.
Rev: xii. 11. .v_^o
Erected in the year 1733."

This stone, then, was erected 120 years ago. In the

PARISH OF CAMBUSNETHAN. 143

above inscription, however, the date of Arthur Inglis' death
is not sufficiently accurate. It ought to have been June,
not July. On the back of the stone are the following
lines : —

" Memento Mori. V

When I did live such was the day

Forsaking sin made men a prey

Unto the rage and tyranny

Of that throne of iniquity

Who robbed Christ, and killed his saints

And brake and burnt his covenants.

I at that time this honour got

To die for Christ upon the spot."

On passing down the road leading to West Carbarns,
and immediately below Kanald's orchard, five venerable oak
trees, toward the left, will arrest attention. They remain
to mark the line of Stockelton-dyke. The late Mr. Paterson
of Watersaugh, factor on the Wish aw estate, mentioned to
the author that the late Lord Belhaven one day expressed
a wish that the trees should be cut down. Mr. Paterson
took occasion to say, " My Lord, if I had a voice in the mat-
ter, I would decidedly say let these trees grow" " Why?"
" Because, my Lord, there is a martyr's blood under one of
them. It was beneath the shade of one of those trees
Arthur Inglis was sitting when he was murdered." "Then,
Mr. Paterson, they shall remain untouched." They still
remain untouched, and we trust shall remain untouched ;
and, if instructions should at any distant day again go out
to cut them down, some friendly voice, certainly, will again
interpose, and say —

" Woodman, spare that tree."

144 HISTORICAL SKETCHES OF THE

A few years ago one of those trees was 3truck by light-
ning, and very much injured. In adverting to this circum-
stance, it is but due to mention that Lord Belhaven, on
ascertaining it, gave orders that the tree be bound with
iron, if possible thereby to prevent its more rapid decay.
Let those trees grow ; and when they fall, let it only be by
the hand of age. Even then, perhaps, there will be some
in Cambusnethan parish cherishing so much respect for
them, and the spot where they grew, and for the cause for
which Arthur Inglis suffered, as to be constrained to plant
young saplings in their stead. They are memorial trees ;
and as, in the year 1836, a new monument was reared at
the grave of Arthur Inglis, so, when it also has decayed, a
few, surely, will not grudge the cost of rearing a fresh
memorial of the spot where the dust of one of the sufferers,
in persecuting times, sleeps safely till the resurrection.

Having given these brief notices of individuals connected
with the parish of Cambusnethan who suffered in persecu-
ting times, several of them unto death, and whose dust
mingles with "kindred dust" in our old church-yard, it is
hoped that this secluded enclosure will, in public estimation,
be invested with a higher and more sacred interest than it
has hitherto been. It is the burial-place of the forefathers
of many who have listened to these " Historical Sketches."
It is a spot over which the foot should pass reverently,
because many of its " narrow houses" are occupied by the
bones of our best patriots — men who, on the morning of
the resurrection, shall have this testified to them, that u they
were faithful unto the death." This allusion to our old
church-yard cannot be dismissed without the quotation of a

PARISH OP CAMBUSNETHAN. 145

few stanzas from Gray's " Elegy," selected for their ap-
propriateness : —

" Beneath these rugged elms, that yew-tree's shade,
Where heaves the turf in many a mouldering heap,
Each in his narrow cell for ever laid,
The rude forefathers of the hamlet sleep.

Let not ambition mock their useful toil,
Their homely joys, and destiny obscure;
Nor grandeur hear, with a disdainful smile,
The short and simple annals of the poor.

Perhaps, in this neglected spot is laid
Some heart once pregnant with celestial fire ;
Hands, that the rod of empire might have sway'd,
Or waked to ecstasy the living lyre.

Some village Hampden, that, with dauntless breast,
The little tyrant of his fields withstood;
Some mute inglorious Milton here may rest;
Some Cromwell, guiltless of his country's blood.

Far from the madding crowd's ignoble strife,
Their sober wishes never learned to stray:
Along the cool sequester'd vale of life
They kept the noiseless tenor of their way.

Yet even these bones, from insult to protect,
Some frail memorial still erected nigh,
With uncouth rhymes and shapless sculpture deck'd,
Implores the passing tribute of a sigh."

The name of Donald Cargill occupies a very conspicuous
place on the roll of our Scottish martyrology. He was at
one time minister of the Barony parish of Glasgow. He
took a very early and decided stand against the Prelatic
party in Scotland, and, for having done so, was banished

K

146 HISTORICAL SKETCHES OF THE

beyond the Tay. He became a leader among what may be
regarded as having been the extreme party of the Covenan-
ters. He was strongly opposed to the " Indulgence," and
to those who countenanced the indulged ministers. He had
a principal hand in drawing up the "Sanquhar Declaration."
His most notable act was his preaching at Torwood, near
Stirling, when, after sermon, he solemnly pronounced the
higher sentence of excommunication against Charles II.,
the Duke of York, the Dukes of Monmouth, Lauderdale,
Rothes, and others. Five thousand merks were offered as a
reward for his apprehension. His last sermon was preached
at Dunsyre-common, in June, 1681. He lodged that night
at Covington mill, and during the night was apprehended
and brought to Lanark Jail. Next day he was brought
through Cambusnethan to Glasgow. From Glasgow he
was carried to Edinburgh, and after trial before the Council
he was condemned, and on the 27th July, 1681, he was
hanged, beheaded, and his head placed upon the Nether-
Bow.

Our reason for introducing Donald Cargill is, that he had
rather an interesting connection with the parish of Cambus-
nethan, frequently visited it, preached in it, and found
refuge in it. Darngavel, and Benty-rig near Stanebent, are
two of the places in Cambusnethan which Mr. Cargill fre-
quently visited, and at which he preached. It was during
his last visit to Darngavel that he had an interview with
the leaders of a sect which had been originated at Borrow-
stounness, who, after the name of their principal leader, were
called " Gibbites." They were then on their way westward,
but got no farther than Strathaven. Under the guise of

PARISH OF CAMBUSNETHAN. 147

great devotion and earnestness, there was a large measure
of fanaticism and blasphemy. The leniency which the
government shewed them, led many to suspect that the
Jesuits of the day secretly encouraged them. One of Mr.
Cargill's last services was at Benty-rig, as he does not
appear, between the time of his last visit to it and his ap-
prehension, to have preached anywhere except at Auchin-
gilloch — a lonely ravine among the uplands of Lanarkshire,
several miles from any human dwelling, and near the sources
of the Logan and the Kype, two of the tributaries of the
Clyde. Reference has already been repeatedly made to
John Miller, in Watersaugh, who built Cambusnethan kirk
in the year 1650, and who suffered a long imprisonment for
alleged correspondence with rebels. Mrs. Miller, the worthy
spouse of the occupant of Watersaugh, was the sister of
Donald Cargill, and Watersaugh thus became one of the
haunts and hiding-places of Cargill. The late Mr. James
Paterson, who long tenanted Watersaugh, and died there,
was thoroughly conversant with the antiquities of the parish,
and to him the author was much indebted for the information
which he obtained regarding Mr. Cargill, and other incidents
recorded in this volume. On one occasion, when Mr. Car-
gill was under hiding in Watersaugh, his enemies got notice,
of it, and were in the court, before the door, before any of
the inmates were aware of the danger in which the servant
of God was thus placed. From the under-flat of this old
mansion there is a door-way leading to the river, which
flows past it at the distance of only a few yards. From
this door- way Cargill managed to escape; and, dashing
through the river, found refuge in the adjoining woods, till
his pursuers, finding they had lost their prey, had with-

148 HISTORICAL SKETCHES OF THE

drawn. The old house of Watersaugh has many interesting
historical and local associations, but, on passing it, the
association ever uppermost in the writer's mind is, that
under its hospitable roof Cargili often found shelter and
repose, and that from the low door- way, facing the river, he
escaped on the occasion referred to.

Reference has already been made to Darmeid, one of the
solitudes on the eastern moors of Cambusnethan, in which
the persecuted often met for worship, and in which many of
the measures which were adopted by them were planned.
One of these measures is known in the history of the period
as the " Sanquhar Declaration,' 7 from its having been first
published at the cross of Sanquhar, in Dumfriesshire. Those
who framed this "Declaration" had made up their minds
to "disown Charles Stuart, who had been reigning — or
rather tyrannizing — on the throne of Britain these years
byegone, as having any right, title to, or interest in the
said crown of Scotland for government, as forfeited several
years since, by his perjury, and breach of covenant both to
God and his kirk, and usurpation of his crown and royal
prerogatives therein — and also disown, and by this resent,
the reception of the Duke of York, that professed papist —
and protest against his succeeding to the crown." There
are good reasons for concluding that this "Declaration"
was, after a season of fasting and prayer, prepared at Dar-
meid, in the summer of 1680, by Cargili and Cameron, and
those who homolgated their views in renouncing allegiance
to the House of Stuart.

There is another name which must be mentioned in

PARISH OF CAMBUSNETHAN. 149

connexion with Darmeid and the parish of Cambusnethan,
that of James Ren wick, the last of the Scottish martyrs.
When prosecuting his studies for the ministry at the univer-
sity of Edinburgh, and before completing his nineteenth
year, he came to decided views on the great religious ques-
tions of the day. He joined the party who condemned the
" Indulgence." He was present at the execution of Mr.
Donald Cargill, and from that day determined to cast in his
lot with the party with whom Cargill had associated. The
" Declaration " published by the Covenanters at the cross
of Lanark, in January, 1682, was read by Mr. Ren wick.
After this his friends, who were greatly edified by his piety
and gifts, sent him to complete his studies at Groningen,
where, in April, 1683, he was, by imposition of hands,
ordained to the office of the ministry. In September, 1683,
he returned to Scotland, and was at once chosen by the
44 Society people" to be their minister. His first sermon to
them was delivered in Darmeid. In the Diary of Serjeant
Nisbet there is the following record of the discourse delivered
on this occasion : — "I went sixteen miles to hear Mr. James
Renwick, a faithful servant of Jesus Christ, who was a
young man endued with great piety, prudence, and modera-
tion. The meeting was held in a large desolate muir. He
appeared to be accompanied with much of his Master's
presence. He preached from Mark xii. 34. In the fore-
noon he gave us several marks of the hypocrite, with per-
tinent applications. In the afternoon he gave us several
marks of the saved believer, and made a large, full, and
free offer of Christ to all sorts of perishing sinners. His
method was clear, plain, and well digested, suiting the
substance and simplicity of the gospel. This was a great

150 HISTORICAL SKETCHES OF THE

day of the Son of Man, to many poor exercised souls, who
this day got a Pisgah view of the Prince of Life."

After the death of Cameron and Cargill, Mr. Renwick
was the only minister who ventured to preach in the fields.
He must have had a partiality for Darmeid, as in the min-
utes of the Privy Council, under date 25th May, 1685,
Darmeid is particularly mentioned as the resort " of persons
to hear that supposed preacher, — a disturber of the peace
and of all honest men, — Mr. James Renwick." His lot fell
in peculiarly trying times. His constitution was not of the
most vigorous class, and was enfeebled by excessive travel-
ling on foot, to minister to the persecuted and scattered flock,
night wanderings, unseasonable sleep, and frequent preach-
ing. The sands of his glass soon ran out. He was apprehen-
ded, and executed at Edinburgh in February, 1688. His
execution probably fixed the deepest stamp of infamy on the
government, as it seems to have been the means of arresting
the current of blood, which, for twenty-eight years, had
flowed on the streets, and upland moors of Scotland.

As Darmeid was associated with the ministry of the
youthful Renwick, the last of the martyrs, Grahame, in his
poem on the " Sabbath," has the following touching allusion
to it : —

' ' In solitudes like these
Thy persecuted children, Scotia, foiled
A tyrant, and a bigot's bloody laws.

There leaning on his spear

The lyart vet'ran heard the word of God

By Cameron thundered, or by Renwick poured

In gentle stream.

PARISH OF CAMBUSNETHAN. 151

t

"O'er their souls
His accents soothing came — as to her young
The heath-fowl's plumes, when at the close of eve
She gathers in, mournful, her brood dispersed
By murderous sport, and o'er the remnant spreads
Fondly her wings ; close nestling 'neath her breast
They, cherished, cower amid the purple blooms."

We must now conclude, and do so expressing a strong
conviction that the history of the covenanting period has
yet to be written, and that a faithful portrait of the Cove-
nanters has yet to be drawn. It is greatly to be regretted
that the principal writers of last century — historians and
poets — had either little sympathy for them, or a positive
dislike. The accumulated genius which was concentrated
in David Hume, Adam Smith, Hugh Blair, Lord Kaimes,
Principal Robertson, Dugald Stewart, Allan Ramsay, Rob-
ert Ferguson, and Robert Burns, can scarcely be expected
to develope itself again, during any one half-century of
Scottish history ; and yet, none of these gifted writers
expressed a syllable of sympathy for the Covenanters or
their struggles. There is one writer on our list, a native of
one of the principal of the covenanting districts, and whose
life was spent among them, who possessed the talent requisite
for the task, and might have so employed it, but for the
unhappy direction given to his religious feelings, by the
discipline which the church exercised towards him, because
of his earlier immoralities — Robert Burns. The heart that
could pour out its patriotism on the field of Bannockburn,
in the inspiring lines beginning thus —

" Scots wha ha'e wi' Wallace bled,"

was certainly competent to have chaunted the sufferings,

152 HISTORICAL SKETCHES OF THE

and struggles for liberty, of the men whose blood, we think,
has served to give a deeper tinge to the heather blossoms of
his own Ayrshire moors. And had Burns sung " but one
paean over Drumclog, or a lament for Bothwell, or an elegy
over Cameron's grave," his genius and memory would have
been honoured by posterity more highly than they have
been. It is generally understood that when Sir Walter
Scott entertained serious thoughts of becoming a novelist,
the story of the Covenanters was intended to have been his
earliest theme. It has been fortunate for his literary fame
that that intention was not executed. " Old Mortality"
has evoked more criticism and censure than any other of the
u Waverley Xovels." Thousands know nothing of the
Covenanters but from this novel; and, biased by the
graphic sketches of Sir Walter, look upon them as having
been a body of raving enthusiasts, whom the government
sought to suppress, by unnecessary and excessive cruelty.
" Old Mortality" is not a history of the covenanting period,
but is in many respects a carricature of it. A carricature
has, doubtless, many salient points about it, but its primary
tendency is to furnish amusement. Roars of laughter are
still occasioned by the drollery — the mingled simplicity and
slyness — of "Cuddy Headrig" and his " mither ;* while
disgust is excited by the words put into the mouths of those
reputed to be the preachers among the Covenanters. But
u 01d Mortality" is not the work that must be carefully
perused, if a full and fair estimate is to be formed of the
earnestness, patriotism, piety, and literature of the Cove-
nanters. That they had their failings, that they held
principles and carried them out in a manner which we
cannot approve, we frankly avow ; but we are not blind to

PARISH OF CAMBUSNETHAN. 153

the excellencies of their character, nor insensible to the
obligations under which they have laid us, by their struggle
for those liberties which were denied them, and which have
long been secured for our country. When men are battling
for great principles ; when the conflict is a protracted one,
and when the principal actors in it are driven from their
homes into hiding-places or exile, and many of them are
being hunted to death, — they have little leisure for calm
and cool reflection ; and, under the excitement of their
circumstances, will say and do many things which they
themselves, as well as posterity, may regret. And while it
would be uncharitable not to make this allowance, it would
be uncandid, not to place in the broad day-light of historic
truth, the treachery and tyranny of the men in power, to-
wards the very individuals but for whom they never would
have been honoured to hold the reins of civil rule ; and
equally uncandid not to affirm, that, in the righteous pro-
vidence of God, these types of treachery and tyranny were,
by the voice of an indignant nation, driven from their places,
that they might be filled by men who appreciated the prin-
ciples of constitutional liberty.

History is far better written a hundred years after the
incidents of a particular period have taken place, than it
could have been at the moment of their occurrence. At the
period when they are taking place, men's minds are excited,
and apt to misrepresent the real facts of the time. The
writing of history requires a calm, reflective spirit. Again,
a considerable period must necessarily elapse before all the
materials can be collected, out of which to form a well-
digested history, and give to the principles of a bygone age

154 HISTORICAL SKETCHES OF THE

their true features. Some men have been better known a
century after they were buried, and their characters been
more fairly dealt with, than when they were acting their
part in the great drama of life. u By their fruits ye shall
know them." James I. and his sons, who terminated the
Stuart dynasty, have had their eulogists ; but the atmo-
sphere of their court was not the most salubrious, and has
been all the better for the ventilation which has been given
it. Dr. Bainolds and his three brethren — Puritans as they
were — standing at the bottom of the Council table of
Hampton Court, are an infinitely finer group than James
and his bishops seated at the top of it. The meekness of
young M'Kaii, when under the torture of the boot in Edin-
burgh, will be looked at and admired, in preference to the
cruelty of Lauderdale, which could sit unmoved in the
presence of these sufferings. Harvey's picture of "The
Covenanter's Baptism " in the mountain dell, awakens in a
truly devout mind, far higher and holier feelings than when
gazing on a picture of cathedral worship ; and as Cromwell,
Hampden, and Pym, are now adjudged to have been the
pioneers of the Revolution, we must apply to the men of the
covenanting times the lines of Cowper —

" They of old, whose tempered blades
Dispersed the shackles of usurped control,
And hewed them link from link— then Britain's sons
Were sons indeed."

The late Dr. M'Crie, who came forward to vindicate the
Covenanters from the attack which Sir Walter Scott had
made on them, has thus expressed himself : — " What
although, in discharging their arduous duty, in times of

PAKISH OF CAMBUSNETHAN. 155

unexampled trial, they were guilty of partial irregularities,
and some of them of individual crimes ? What although the
language in which they expressed themselves was homely,
and appears to our ears coarse, and unsuitable to the sub-
ject ? What although they gave a greater prominence to
some points, and laid a greater stress on some articles, than
we may now think they were entitled to ? What although
they discovered an immoderate heat and irritation of spirit,
considering the barbarous and brutal manner in which they
had long been treated? What although they fell into
parties, and quarrelled among themselves, when we consider
the crafty and insidious measures employed by their adver-
saries to disunite them — and when we can perceive them
actuated by honesty and principle, even in the greatest
errors into which they were betrayed ? These, granting
them to be all true, may form a proper subject for sober
statement, and for cool animadversion, but never for turning
the whole of their conduct into ridicule, or treating them
with scurrilous buffoonery. No enlightened friend to civil
and religious liberty — no person whose moral and humane
feelings have not been warped by the most lamentable party
prejudices, would over think of treating them in this manner.
They were sufferers — they were suffering unjustly — they
were demanding only what they were entitled to enjoy —
they persevered in their demands until they were successful,
and to their disinterested struggles, and their astonishing
perseverance, we are indebted, under God, for the blessings
we enjoy."

In parting with our subject, and presenting one other
portrait of the Covenanters and their principles, we apply to

156 HISTORICAL SKETCHES.

them the following sketch from the pencil of Lord Macaulay.
Speaking of the Puritans of England, he says : — If they
were unaquainted with the works of philosophers and poets,
they were deeply read in the oracles of God. If their names
were not found in the registers of heralds, they were recorded
in the Book of Life. If their steps were not attended by a
splendid train of menials, legions of ministering angels had
charge over them. Their palaces were houses not made
with hands — their diadems, crowns of glory which should
never fade away. On the rich and the eloquent, on nobles
and priests, they looked down with contempt, for they es-
teemed themselves rich in a more precious treasure, and
eloquent in a more sublime language — nobles by the right
of an earlier creation, and priests by the imposition of a
mightier hand."

THE END.

D. JOHNSTON, PRINTER, WISH AW.

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